Word: polled
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...matter of fooling at all. It's strictly a matter of playing along with the political machine: because ninety per cent of the electorates in these eight southern states not only will not, but cannot vote. They cannot vote because it costs them one to thirty-six dollars in poll tax money...
...pleasure of a meagre 4,000 citizens, the problem is no longer confined to the Negro's position in the social structure of the country. When thirteen of the twenty-four chairmen and ranking members of the most important committees in the House of Representatives come from poll tax states the question has gone far beyond mere protection of the Black minority. When ten per cent of eight states can exercise power larger than that of the other forty states combined, you have more than a racial issue: you have a democratic problem in practical politics...
...spite of our democratic structure, this paradoxical poll-tax situation exists today. In spite of American democracy, a bill to abolish that tax was buried in a reactionary Judiciary Committee for three years. But precisely because of those same democratic methods, the anti-poll tax bill was petitioned out of committee and passed by the House of Representatives on October 12 by an overwhelming majority. It now rests, with Senator Pepper's similar measure, in the hands of the Senate Judiciary Committee...
Unless the poll tax is abolished by the Senate by the end of this year, it will die until a new Congress bothers to revive it. It will die, and with it will die the hopes of extending democracy to 10,000,000 voteless Southern citizens. But it can, and it will be passed, if public pressure sees to it that the bill is brought to a vote before this session of Congress ends. Here is a chance for the American people to bring democracy to the South, at a time when their country is fighting a war to bring...
Soviet Russia does not claim it is a democracy, but it does claim to be our staunch ally in war and in the peace to come. We do not have to condone every institution of the Soviet system any more than they will condone out poll tax laws, or our race discrimination while they have practically none. Both nations have chosen their own system and neither should impair the united struggle against fascism by mocking the other's political faith...