Economics and race are significant issues in Virginia's 8th Congressional District (CD) race, and Delegate Simon's poll tax is a discriminatory return to a dark past in America's history. Poll taxes were eliminated in federal elections fifty years ago by the 24th Amendment to the US Constitution, and this same prohibition was extended to state elections two years later. Straw polls can play a deciding factor in close elections, and the prohibition against poll taxes should be voluntarily extended to straw polls as well.