Coulter: “There ought to be a poll tax to take the literacy test before voting”


On the September 29 edition of Fox News' Your World, right-wing pundit Ann Coulter claimed: “Way too many people vote. We should have fewer people voting. There ought to be a poll tax to take the literacy test before voting.” Coulter made this claim after suggesting that people who “would vote for Democrats because gas prices were going up” are “risking another terrorist attack.”

From the September 29 edition of Your World:

COULTER: Right, but think about that. I mean, that -- that is why the Democrats will pick up seats this fall. The fact that anyone would vote for Democrats because gas prices were going up -- oh, OK, that's worth risking another terrorist attack. “I'm upset. Gas prices are high.” No. Way too many people vote. We should have fewer people voting. There ought to be a poll tax to take the literacy test before voting.

The 24th Amendment to the Constitution, ratified in 1964, states that "[t]he 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."