This tax, and all other taxes due for the two previous years, must be paid before the 1st of February of the election year.

All these provisions, though applying equally to all the population, greatly lessened the negro vote.

Negroes are notoriously migratory, and a large proportion never remain two years in the same place.

The poll tax could not be collected by legal process, and to pay the tax for two years, four dollars or more, eight months in advance of an election, seemed to the average negro to be rank extravagance.

Moreover, few politicians are reckless enough to arrange for the payment of poll taxes in exchange for the promised delivery of votes eight months away, when half the would-be voters might be in another county, or even in another State.