Here is a news story describing the oral argument held February 11 in Kobach v U.S. Election Assistance Commission, 5:13cv-4095. The issue is whether Kansas and Arizona may alter the federal voter registration form, to require that proof of citizenship be attached when the form is submitted.
On February 12, a Tampa Bay Times/WUSF Public Media poll for the March 11 special election in Florida’s 13th district was released. See this story. After “leaners” are included, the results are: Democratic Alex Sink 42%, Republican David Jolly 35%, Libertarian Lucas Overby 4%, other or undecided 19%. There is also a declared write-in candidate in the race, Michael Levinson, and the story mentions him but does not list any poll result for him.
The poll shows that Overby gets support from 9% of voters who describe themselves as independents. Thanks to Political Wire for the link.
On February 12, California Congressman Gary Miller announced he will not run for re-election this year. He is a Republican elected in the 31st district in 2012. The 31st district is predominantly Democratic, but Miller only won because in the top-two primary, four Democrats split the Democratic vote and allowed the two Republicans to place first and second. See this story. Thanks to PoliticalWire for the link.
According to this story, the new American Party of South Carolina, a centrist party, has a bigger student group at Winthrop University than either of the two major parties do. Winthrop University is in Rock Hill, and has existed since the 19th century, and is considered the best-ranked university in the state. Thanks to David Gillespie for the link.
The print edition of The New York Times of February 12 has this editorial, calling on all states to enable ex-felons to register to vote.
There are three fairly large groups of legally competent adult citizens who are not permitted to vote freely in parts of the United States: (1) ex-felons; (2) residents of territories (and, to a lesser extent, residents of the District of Columbia); (3) supporters of minor party and independent candidates.
