Yvonne Brown, age 15, of Peterson, N.J., for her question:

WHAT IS A POLL TAX?

A poll tax is a tax levied equally on all the cities of a community. The United States has never levied a national poll tax but in the past, laws in several states required that a citizen who did not pay the poll tax could not vote.

Amendment 24 to the United States Constitution, ratified in 1964, made it illegal for a state to use payment of taxes as a voting requirement in national elections.

In 1966, the Supreme Court of the United States declared poll taxes unconstitutional if they are used as a prerequisite for voting in state and local elections. The court held that such taxes violated the equal protection of the law guaranteed by Amendment 19 to the United States Constitution.

The term "poll tax" comes from the English word "poll," which means "head." Many persons refer to it as a head tax. Also, it is sometimes called a capitation tax, from the Latin "caput," meaning "head."

Many people object to poll taxes because they feel that taxes should be based only on income and property.