On August 30, the No Labels national office e-mailed people on its list, asking them to weigh in on how No Labels should choose a presidential nominee. The choices are: (1) by five to ten highly-respected national leaders of No Labels; (2) by approximately 2,000 delegates who will gather at the No Labels convention in 2024; (3) by tens of thousands of registered No Labels members; (4) by a subset of the 77,000,000 registered voters that No Labels research indicates would be open to voting for the Unity Ticket.
Americans Elect, which was somewhat similar to No Labels, in preparation for the 2012 presidential election, set up a website in which any registered voter in the United States could register as someone who wanted to vote in the Americans Elect selection process. It also set up a system by which candidates could qualify for the vote. But no one received many votes in the Americans Elect “primary”. Among candidates seeking the Americans Elect nomination, former Louisiana Governor Buddy Roemer got the most, 6,293. His total was so low that Americans Elect decided on May 17, 2012, not to run anyone.
In 1996, the Reform Party had its own national “primary”. People who were registered members of the Reform Party, or who had signed a petition to put the party on the ballot, or who asked for a primary ballot, all were permitted to vote. Ross Perot won with 32,145 votes; his opponent, former Colorado Governor Dick Lamm, received 17,121. It is not known if the leaders of No Labels have familiarized themselves with the 2012 and 1996 examples.
