diff --git a/ietf/nomcom/forms.py b/ietf/nomcom/forms.py
index 211097f6b..ab797e3e5 100644
--- a/ietf/nomcom/forms.py
+++ b/ietf/nomcom/forms.py
@@ -225,11 +225,15 @@ class EditNomcomForm(forms.ModelForm):
 class MergeNomineeForm(forms.Form):
 
     primary_email = SearchableEmailField(
-        help_text="Select the email of the Nominee record you want to use as the primary record.")
+        help_text="Select the email of the Nominee record you want to use as the primary record.",
+        all_emails = True,
+    )
     secondary_emails = SearchableEmailsField(
         help_text="Select all the duplicates that should be consolidated with the primary "
             "Nominee record.  Nominations already received with any of these email address "
-            "will be moved to show under the primary address." )
+            "will be moved to show under the primary address.",
+        all_emails = True,
+        )
 
     def __init__(self, *args, **kwargs):
         self.nomcom = kwargs.pop('nomcom', None)
diff --git a/ietf/person/fields.py b/ietf/person/fields.py
index 177da9cb7..73bf23f5b 100644
--- a/ietf/person/fields.py
+++ b/ietf/person/fields.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 import json
 
 from collections import Counter
+from urllib import urlencode
 
 from django.utils.html import escape
 from django import forms
@@ -47,12 +48,14 @@ class SearchablePersonsField(forms.CharField):
     def __init__(self,
                  max_entries=None, # max number of selected objs
                  only_users=False, # only select persons who also have a user
+                 all_emails=False, # select only active email addresses
                  model=Person, # or Email
                  hint_text="Type in name to search for person.",
                  *args, **kwargs):
         kwargs["max_length"] = 1000
         self.max_entries = max_entries
         self.only_users = only_users
+        self.all_emails = all_emails
         assert model in [ Email, Person ]
         self.model = model
 
@@ -83,8 +86,13 @@ class SearchablePersonsField(forms.CharField):
         # doing this in the constructor is difficult because the URL
         # patterns may not have been fully constructed there yet
         self.widget.attrs["data-ajax-url"] = urlreverse("ajax_select2_search_person_email", kwargs={ "model_name": self.model.__name__.lower() })
+        query_args = {}
         if self.only_users:
-            self.widget.attrs["data-ajax-url"] += "?user=1" # require a Datatracker account
+            query_args["user"] = "1"
+        if self.all_emails:
+            query_args["a"] = "1"
+        if query_args:    
+            self.widget.attrs["data-ajax-url"] += "?%s" % urlencode(query_args)
 
         return u",".join(str(p.pk) for p in value)
 
diff --git a/ietf/person/views.py b/ietf/person/views.py
index 1234f6841..70d36cde2 100644
--- a/ietf/person/views.py
+++ b/ietf/person/views.py
@@ -34,9 +34,12 @@ def ajax_select2_search(request, model_name):
 
     # require an account at the Datatracker
     only_users = request.GET.get("user") == "1"
+    all_emails = request.GET.get("a", "0") == "1"
 
     if model == Email:
-        objs = objs.filter(active=True).order_by('person__name').exclude(person=None)
+        objs = objs.exclude(person=None).order_by('person__name')        
+        if not all_emails:
+            objs = objs.filter(active=True)
         if only_users:
             objs = objs.exclude(person__user=None)
     elif model == Person: