"Poll Taxes" is a misdirection. The amendment was passed on the basis of people thinking it only dealt with "poll taxes" which they had been told was racist and was keeping black people from voting.
The last three words of the 24th amendment extends it to any form of taxation. Prior to the 24th amendment, you could not vote unless you paid taxes. This acted as a brake on government spending because *ONLY* taxpayers could vote.
With non taxpayers voting, you have a demographic you can bribe with government money, and they don't care how much the government spends. In fact they *WANT* the government to spend as much on them as possible.
And that's how we got the "Great Society" and the "War on Poverty."
That's what opened up the floodgates of reckless spending.
Because you could bribe voters into voting for you, you could create a near insurmountable majority, and that's what happened.
I have far less problem with the right to vote being tied to taxpaying citizens and property owners than to welfare recipients on the government dole.
There is far too much a conflict of interest when one is receiving a government hand out.
Also, what would help is election reform and clearing out voter rolls. Remove the name of the deceased and those who have moved. Vote in person on election day presenting ID.
For those in hospitals and nursing homes, set up voting places so they can also vote in person instead of having someone “help” them fill out their ballot.
Vote fraud is a HUGE contributor to where we are politically. Deal with that instead of denying a whole demographic the right to vote based on the voting patterns of some in it.
And I would defy any man to vote more conservative than I do.