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.

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.

On February 10, the Arizona Senate Judiciary Committee passed SB 1270 by 6-3. SB 1270 is identical to HB 2196. Both bills repeal the 2013 omnibus election law bill. The 2013 bill made it far more difficult for members of qualified minor parties to get on their own party’s primary ballots.

The two repeal bills (one in each House) have now passed all committees, so it seems likely they will pass into law soon.