ballot. Candidates who had served in any of the following positions, without having been removed from office, current criminal indictment, or conviction, needed 1,000 support clicks from each of 10 states to qualify: Vice President, United States Senator, member of Congress, Presidential Cabinet member, head of a Federal agency, governor, mayor of any of the largest 100 cities in the United States, chairman or chief executive officer or president of a corporation, nonprofit corporation, or philanthropic organization with 1,000 or more employees, president of a national labor union with 100,000 or more members, military officer who has attained flag rank, ambassador, or president of an American-based university with 4,000 or more students. All other candidates required 5,000 support clicks from each of 10 states to qualify for the primary ballot. The first phase of voting was intended to identify the six most popular certified candidates through three rounds of online balloting. The organization announced that it would hold a series of three primary ballots to narrow down its field of candidates on May 8, 15, and 22, 2012. The six finalists were expected to advance to the second phase of the primary after agreeing to the Americans Elect rules and selecting a Vice-Presidential running mate. Americans Elect planned to choose its final candidate in June 2012 through an Internet-based convention, a process open to all voters, regardless of party affiliation. The intent was to provide a more open nominating process, resulting in better choices during the election. However, on May 1, 2012, the first primary ballot (which had been scheduled for May 8) was cancelled, because no candidate had garnered sufficient support clicks to qualify for the ballot. Voting was then rescheduled to begin on May 15, 2012. However, with no candidate qualifying for the ballot to be held on that date, the primary was pushed off again. On May 17, the organization issued a statement that it was ending its nomination process because no candidate had achieved the required amount of support to qualify for its primary ballot. In July 2012, the remaining board members decided to officially end Americans Elect's presidential efforts and withdrew its name from most state ballots. The Americans Elect website is still accessible, but has not been updated since 2012. Americans Elect made no attempt to revive its process for the 2016 presidential election, despite widespread dissatisfaction with the two major parties and the