To the 156,084 of you who voted for Graham Platner —

This is an open letter to you. Not to a party. Not to a headline. To you — the 156,084 Mainers who showed up on June 9 and chose Graham to take on Susan Collins.

First: don't give up. Your vote was real. Your voice was real. And it is being taken from you by people who never asked your permission.

Second: don't let them make you a judge without a trial. Serious allegations were made, and they deserve a serious, transparent investigation. But that is exactly the point — an investigation. No one, not Graham and not the people accusing him, is served by a verdict rushed through in a weekend by party insiders and press releases. Judgment before investigation isn't justice. It's convenience. Don't let anyone hand you a conclusion and call it a fact.

Here's what actually happened. After 156,084 of you voted for Graham, the party establishment forced him off the ballot and moved to hand your line to a replacement you didn't initially choose. That is disenfranchisement, plain and simple.

But your fight is all of our fight, and it's not over—Maine law leaves one door open. Let us be honest about the options, because the party is counting on you not understanding them:

Graham Platner cannot run as an independent on the printed ballot. That required signatures filed by June 1, 2026 — a deadline that has already passed, and one Maine law closes to former primary candidates anyway. (21-A M.R.S. §354, §§351, 355.)

He CAN still run as a declared write-in. His name won't be printed, but we can write it in — and here is the one thing that matters: those votes only count if Graham files a Declaration of Write-In Candidacy with the Secretary of State by 5 PM on August 25, 2026. (21-A M.R.S. §722-A.)

 

This is the part they don't want you to know: if Graham does not file that declaration, every single "Graham Platner" written in this November is legally thrown in the trash — "the vote for that office may not be counted." (21-A M.R.S. §696(2)(E).) The Supreme Court confirmed there is no right to have an undeclared write-in counted. (Burdick v. Takushi, 504 U.S. 428 (1992).) One signature on one form is the difference between 156,084 votes and zero.

So this petition is asking two things.

To the 156,084—and every Mainer who believes a vote should mean something: don't give up, don't judge without a real investigation, and sign this to petition Graham directly.

To Graham: the ballot line belongs to the people of Maine, not to the party bosses who regularly try to erase us. Go independent of them. File your write-in declaration way before August 25. Let us finish what 156,084 Mainers started.

Sign now. Then send this to three Mainers who believe in democracy. They deserve to know their vote isn't dead yet.

#WriteInGrahamPlatner #LetMaineVote