The poll tax, an annual levy on voting, was a major source of revenue for states and municipalities in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The tax was a flat fee on voter registration, regardless of income. In practice, poll taxes suppressed the vote of low-income people who could not afford the fee.

In 1854, Washington Territory levied its first poll tax, on all white males over the age of 21. In 1881, a second poll tax of $4, known and the “road poll tax,” was imposed on all males liable to perform labor on the public roads. With the inception of statehood, tax laws remained largely the same as in the territorial period, including a poll tax to be paid directly into each county’s general fund. Poll taxes soon fell into disfavor, however; the county poll tax was repealed in 1893, and the road poll tax in 1907. In 1921, the Washington state legislature imposed a new poll tax of five dollars, but immediate public outcry ensued, and the tax was repealed in 1922 by an initiative measure.

This receipt for the short-lived poll tax of 1922 is signed by Hannah E. Marley of Seattle. The receipt for five dollars (the 2020 equivalent of about $77) includes the stamp for William A. Gaines, County Treasurer, and preprinted signature for C. W. Clausen, State Auditor.

Caption information source:" The Washington Tax System—How It Grew" by Alfred Harsch, Washington Law Review, Vol. 39, 1965. Retrieved at https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/267975127.pdf on 11/25/2020.