The Daily Oklahoman, the largest newspaper in Oklahoma, has this editorial, saying that the lawsuit on whether the state officers of Americans Elect should control their own party’s nomination process is “frivolous” and “a waste of taxpayer dollars”. Even though the portion of the editorial dealing with Americans Elect is very short, it has two factual errors.
First, it asserts that the Americans Elect national rules provided that the party would run one Democrat and one Republican for national office. Actually, the rules just said that the presidential nominee and vice-presidential nominee had to be of different partisan affiliations. The national rules did not exclude independent or minor party members from being on the ticket.
Second, the editorial says the party’s presidential electors were to vote for the nominees chosen by the Americans Elect national convention. Actually, the Americans Elect national rules said the national nominees would be chosen in an on-line vote, not a national convention.
The Daily Oklahoman also has this news story, which lays stress on the desire of Oklahoma election officials to start printing ballots on September 7. The news story does not mention that the Americans Elect state officers chose Gary Johnson on July 21, and the state deliberately did not deny their nomination until August 29. Thus, the rush to decide the lawsuit is entirely the state’s fault, not the fault of the state Americans Elect officers. Furthermore, the article fails to mention that Oklahoma state law requires the presidential electors of all qualified parties to be chosen by the state officers, not the national officers.