Felon voting limitations v 24th Amendment (vanity)

The United States Constitution, 24th Amendment ^ | 07 May 2008 | Self

[samson1097]

I apologize for the vanity, and hopefully this ends up in the right forum. My interest was really piqued though and I'm pretty sure there are a few folks here who can give me opinions.

I was reading the Constitution this evening and noticed that the 24th Amendment states in part: "[Voting privlidges] 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."

The part of the Amendment which I found intriguing is the last three words, "or other tax". The Federal Income Tax, and State income taxes seem to qualify under such a statement.

As of May 10, 2007, 48 states prevented incarserated felons from voting. 20 allow a felon to vote after parole is served (http://www.felonvotingprocon.org/pop/StateLaws.htm)

Here are the questions I have:

1) Though it doesn't seem the intention, could Income tax qualify under the Amendment?

2) Is failing to pay income taxes a felony? (I know that tax evasion is, but is simply not paying the same?)

3) If so, if an incarserated felons is there for failure to pay any tax, and are unable to vote according the state laws, does that run counter to the 24th Amendment?

[samson1097]

I know there are a lot of people here more familiar with the laws than I am. Hopefully some of you will share your ideas so I won't have to continue debating it in my head :)

[mnehring]

Just a thought, but failure to pay would also include other possible felonies including filing of false tax returns or fraud. So while technically, they may not prevent your voting under the Constitution for not paying, other crimes associated with not paying would trump that.

[Verginius Rufus]

The 14th amendment recognizes the right of a state to deny voting rights to citizens "for participation in rebellion, or other crime."

I suppose someone who was sent to prison solely for failing to pay taxes, and who lost the right to vote as a result, might try to use the 24th amendment to reclaim his voting rights, but such people are presumably a very small fraction of the felons who are barred from voting.