poll tax

Examples of poll tax in the following topics:

• The 24th Amendment

  • The Twenty-fourth Amendment prohibits both Congress and the states from conditioning the right to vote in federal elections on payment of a poll tax or other types of tax.
  • President Johnson called the amendment a "triumph of liberty over restriction" and "a verification of people's rights. " States that maintained the poll tax were more reserved.
  • Mississippi's Attorney General, Joe Patterson, complained about the complexity of two sets of voters - those who paid their poll tax and could vote in all elections, and those who had not and could only vote in federal elections
  • The right of citizens of the United States to vote in any primary or other election for President or Vice President, for electors for President or Vice President, or for Senator or Representative in Congress, shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or any State by reason of failure to pay any poll tax or other tax.

• Individual Taxes

  • In U.S. constitutional law, direct taxes refer to poll taxes and property taxes, which are based on simple existence or ownership.
  • These include income tax witholding, social security and medicare taxes, and unemployment taxes.
  • Sales tax is an indirect tax levied on the state level, including taxes on retail sale, lease and rental of goods, as well as some services.
  • Sales tax is calculated as the purchase price times the appropriate tax rate.
  • The estate tax is an excise tax levied on the right to pass property at death.

• Additional Factors: Gender, Age, Religion, Race, and Ethnicity

  • Websites such as Facebook and YouTube not only allow students acquire information about the polls, but also allow them to share their excitement over the polls and candidates.
  • Poll taxes, literacy tests, and intimidation kept black voters from the polls.
  • However, Asian Americans who have been victims of hate crimes or consider themselves to be part of a deprived group find their way to the polls in greater numbers.
  • Much of the Christian right's power within the American political system is attributed to their extraordinary turnout rate at the polls.

• Types of Polls

  • A benchmark poll is generally the first poll taken in a campaign.
  • Brushfire polls are polls taken during the period between the benchmark and tracking polls.
  • An entrance poll is a poll that is taken before voters cast their votes.
  • Like all opinion polls, exit polls by nature do include a margin of error.
  • A straw poll or straw vote is a poll with nonbinding results.

• Republican Turmoil & Democratic Resurgence

  • Several factors, including the ailing economy and Bush's tax increases, led to Republican defeat in the 1992 elections.
  • Nearing election day, polls suggested that the race was a dead-heat, but Clinton pulled out on top, defeating Bush in a 43% to 38% popular vote margin.
  • Perot won 19% of the popular vote, one of the highest totals for a third party candidate in US history, drawing equally from both major candidates according to exit polls.
  • Conservative Republicans point to Bush's 1990 agreement to raise taxes in contradiction of his famous "Read my lips: no new taxes" pledge as reason for his defeat.
  • Bush had raised taxes in an attempt to address an increasing budget deficit, which has largely been attributed to the Reagan tax cuts and military spending of the 1980s.

• The Election of 1980

  • Such incentives included adjusting income tax and capital gains tax rates.
  • Reagan theorized that cutting tax rates would actually increase tax revenues because the lower rates would encourage people to work harder in order to be able to keep more of their money.
  • Weeks before the election, Reagan had trailed Carter in most polls.
  • Following his sole debate with President Carter on October 29, however, Reagan overcame the poll deficit, and within one week, the Associated Press reported that the race was "too close to call."
  • Only 52%of eligible voters went to the polls in 1980, the lowest turnout for a presidential election since 1948.

• Polls Versus Votes

  • These are really polls rather than votes, but the developers may choose to treat the result as binding.
  • As with any poll, be sure to make it clear to the participants that there's a write-in option: if someone thinks of a better option not offered in the poll questions, her response may turn out to be the most important result of the poll.

• Privatization

  • Democratic U.S. presidential candidate John Kerry criticized U.S. firms that outsource jobs abroad or that incorporate overseas in tax havens to avoid paying their "fair share" of U.S. taxes during his 2004 campaign, calling such firms "Benedict Arnold corporations. "
  • A Zogby International poll conducted in August 2004 found that 71% of American voters believed that "outsourcing jobs overseas" hurt the economy while another 62% believed that the U.S. government should impose some legislative action against companies that transfer domestic jobs overseas, possibly in the form of increased taxes on companies that outsource.
  • Another given rationale is the high corporate income tax rate in the U.S. relative to other OECD nations, and the uncommonness of taxing revenues earned outside of U.S. jurisdiction.
  • It is argued that lowering the corporate income tax and ending the double-taxation of foreign-derived revenue (taxed once in the nation where the revenue was raised, and once from the U.S.) will alleviate corporate outsourcing and make the U.S. more attractive to foreign companies.
  • However, while the US has a high official tax rate, the actual taxes paid by US corporations may be considerably lower due to the use of tax loopholes, tax havens, and "gaming the system. " Rather than avoiding taxes, outsourcing may be mostly driven by the desire to lower labor costs (see standpoint of labor above).

• Early Public Opinion Research and Polling

  • The first known example of an opinion poll was an 1824 local straw poll by The Harrisburg Pennsylvanian for the Jackson Adams race.
  • The first known example of an opinion poll was a local straw poll conducted by The Harrisburg Pennsylvanian in 1824, showing Andrew Jackson leading John Quincy Adams by 335 votes to 169 in the contest for the United States Presidency.
  • The Literary Digest soon went out of business, while polling started to take off.
  • Elmo Roper was another American pioneer in political forecasting using scientific polls.
  • By the 1950s, various types of polling had spread to most democracies.

• The Election of 1996

  • The fragmented field of candidates debated issues such as a flat tax and other tax cut proposals, as well as a return to supply-side economic policies popularized by Ronald Reagan.
  • With respect to the issues, Bob Dole promised a 15% across-the-board reduction in income tax rates.
  • Throughout the run-up to the general election, Clinton maintained comfortable leads in the polls over Dole and Perot.
  • The 1996 national exit poll showed that just as in 1992, Perot's supporters drew from Clinton and Dole equally.
  • In polls directed at Perot voters as to who would be a second choice, Clinton consistently held substantial leads.