During white supremacist efforts, which voting restriction was used in Georgia?

• A. Universal suffrage
• B. Tax payment requirements restricting eligibility
• C. Lowering voting age
• D. Replacing elections with appointments

Answer: (B)

The main idea here is how voting power was deliberately limited by barriers that targeted marginalized voters during Jim Crow in Georgia. A tax payment requirement to vote, known as a poll tax, is a classic tool used to suppress turnout. If you had to pay a tax to vote, many Black citizens and poorer White residents could not afford to vote, effectively ensuring that political influence stayed in the hands of white, wealthier individuals. In practice, universal suffrage—the idea that everyone should be able to vote—was thwarted by this financial barrier, even though the law on paper might look neutral.

Context helps: poll taxes were part of a broader set of Jim Crow measures designed to disenfranchise Black voters. Later, the 24th Amendment prohibited poll taxes in federal elections, and the Supreme Court struck down poll taxes in state elections in Harper v. Virginia Board of Elections, reinforcing that such financial barriers cannot determine who can vote. The other options would either widen participation or remove elections altogether, not reflect the method used to restrict voting in that era.