The (Hidden) Cost of Voting
“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.” — 24th Amendment to the Constitution of the United States
In the United States, we typically think of voting as being free. Textbooks teach us that since poll taxes were banned in 1964, any registered voter could cast a ballot free of charge. The truth, however, is far more complicated than that. Across the country, blue, red, and purple states impose various de facto modern “poll taxes” on citizens who wish to participate in elections.
Following the Civil War, Southern states implemented poll taxes to exclude former slaves and poor whites from elections. By 1902, all eleven states that formed the Confederacy had implemented poll taxes. But, poll taxes weren’t limited only to the South. They had roots in the original Thirteen Colonies and Pennsylvania didn’t eliminate its poll tax until 1933. In 1937, the Supreme Court expressly authorized poll taxes in Breedlove v. Suttles, ruling that Georgia’s $1.00 per year tax on registered voters between 21 and 60 years old was constitutional. The unanimous decision held “[t]he payment of poll taxes as a prerequisite to voting is a familiar and reasonable regulation long enforced in many states and for more than a century in Georgia.”
Administration of the tax varied from state to state but generally required residents to pay the tax to register to vote or provide proof of payment of the tax to vote. Failure to provide a receipt or other proof of payment meant that you could not vote. In some states, poll taxes had to be paid for a few years before you could be eligible to vote. In Alabama, the poll tax was cumulative; a law requiring men to pay all that was due from the age of twenty-one was written into the 1901 state constitution. In Georgia, the 1926 Code stipulated that a resident “shall have paid all taxes which may have been required of him” since 1877. [Forbes]
In 1964, Congress proposed and the states ratified the Twenty-fourth Amendment ending poll taxes for federal elections. Almost 30 years after Breedlove, the Supreme Court reversed itself in Harper v. Virginia State Board of Elections and applied the Twenty-fourth Amendment to state elections as well. Associate Justice William Douglas, writing for the majority in Harper, held that “a State violates the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment whenever it makes the affluence of the voter or payment of any fee an electoral standard. Voter qualifications have no relation to wealth.”
Though voting, in both federal and state elections, should theoretically be free post-Harper, the reality is isn’t that simple as states impose a variety of costly hurdles to casting a ballot in an election. Though none are as overt as the poll taxes of old, no state has made voting entirely free.
Since 2018, Scot Schraufnagel, Michael J. Pomante, and Quan Li have published a Cost of Voting index in the Election Law Journal. This index ranks the relative cost of voting in all 50 states. The index considers the burden of registering to vote, the inconvenience of voting, voter ID laws, poll hours, and the ease of absentee voting. In 2022, “Oregon, which has the most progressive automatic voter registration process and all-mail voting, maintains the first position as the easiest state to vote in. Mississippi (49th) and New Hampshire (50th) stay at the bottom of the rankings as the most difficult states for voting.”
The most pervasive expense imposed on voters is Election Day itself. Though the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November historically made sense to maximize participation in elections, today, it requires many voters to take time off work to vote or find time to complete their ballot in the morning or evening. While this may be relatively insignificant for white-collar workers and retirees, for hourly and gig workers, caregivers and parents, the time it takes to vote has a significant, and quantifiable, cost. If polling places are far away or have long lines, this cost grows even larger. Driving, taking mass transit to a poll site, and paying to park also imposes a direct cost on voting in person on Election Day.
These expenses are compounded when registering to vote and ID requirements can add further fees and costs to those who wish to vote. For transient populations, like students or military members, who desire to cast a ballot in their local elections, these expenses can add up after each move.
States that offer ample early voting opportunities can reduce the cost of casting a ballot by giving voters the flexibility of voting on a weekend or a day when they are not scheduled to work. Though the vast majority of states provide this option to voters New Hampshire and Connecticut force voters to either appear in person at their poll place on Election Day or vote using an absentee ballot.
States with all mail-in voting or no-excuse absentee voting reduce the burden of casting a ballot, but create a very real expense to returning a ballot: postage. This cost can be inconsistent and confusing. Colorado, one of the first states to adopt all mail-in voting, demonstrates the problem. In 2018, the cost to return a Denver ballot by mail was 71 cents but Durango’s 2019 municipal election ballots could be returned for only 55 cents and Larimer County advised voters that ballots only require 50 cents in postage to return. In 2016, twenty-four Colorado counties had a two-page ballot that required additional postage (68 cents).
Adding even more confusion (and cost), the required postage does not always easily match up with the price of stamps, forcing voters to either overpay to mail their ballot or use small denomination stamps (which few people have). In states with all mail-in voting, young people sometimes don’t vote because they do not own stamps or even know where to purchase them.
Court debts and judicial fees are yet another cost to voting imposed by states on some voters.
According to the Collateral Consequences Resource Center, 10 states explicitly deny re-enfranchisement indefinitely because of unpaid court debt for some or all felony convictions, and 15 prohibit re-enfranchisement because of unpaid court debt in certain circumstances. University of California, Los Angeles, Law Professor Beth Colgan argues that the number is even higher: 48 states and the District of Columbia practice some form of wealth-based disenfranchisement against people with felony convictions. [ABA]
Though these costs to voting may seem small, it is worthwhile considering who is being excluded because they can’t afford to cast a ballot. Unhoused and low-income voters, seniors living on fixed incomes who need to make every penny count, citizens with outstanding court fees, and those who live significant distances from polling places all face a Hobson’s choice when deciding to participate in an election or have a few extra dollars to spend on groceries. Service workers, self-employed workers, hourly employees, and gig economy workers lose money when they aren’t working — in states with limited or no early voting opportunities or where voting involves waiting in lines for hours, these voters may not be able to afford to take the time to go vote in person. Voters living or stationed overseas and students going to school out-of-state who want to vote by mail need to pay for adequate postage to make sure their ballot is received by Election Day. These expenses are compounded when you factor in the time and cost associated with registering to vote and updating IDs.
Regardless of what is taught in textbooks, voting will never be entirely free. That doesn’t mean that states can’t or shouldn’t work to minimize the cost of casting a ballot. Offering generous early voting opportunities on both weekdays and weekends, providing prepaid return ballots and conveniently located ballot drop boxes, automatic voter registration, and providing free government IDs can ensure that all voters are able to participate in our democracy no matter how much money they have or what their job is.
Nicholas Monck served as the Deputy Director for Voter Protection for the Colorado Democratic Party in 2018 and Boulder County Democratic Party Legal Team Co-Lead from 2017–2019. Opinions expressed are his own and do not represent the views of his employer.
