On the assumption that a judge immediately dependent on the voters would be less likely to challenge the other two branches, they then hamstrung the judiciary by requiring that every last member be popularly elected. As a final measure, they decided to hamstring the electorate as well, by disenfranchising blacks en masse, and by requiring even white voters to pay a poll tax and register in person nearly a year prior to each election. A $1.50 poll tax may not sound like much, but in the days when subsistence farmers rarely saw money from one season to the next, it was enough to keep thousands of people away from the polls.