John,

I have some good news - important news.

Success is within our grasp on the signature gathering phase of ranked
choice voting.  This is critical because it stops the Democrat's
attempt to put RCV in place for this year's Presidential ballot. 
And, it gives us a shot at eliminating it for Presidential elections all
together.

When we began our fight to repeal ranked choice voting for the
Presidential election last January, we expected the Democrats and their
big-money out of state backers would try to stop us, but we were
confident that we could meet any challenge because of the importance of
our fight and the dedication of you and our team.

We knew it would be a grind.  We were prepared for Democratic Party and
liberal groups to tell people not to sign our petition, and they have. 
We knew they would go further - and they did. They sued use in court
trying to stop even the gathering of signatures.

On Super Tuesday in March,

**we had to walk into court and sue the City of Portland** just to
collect signatures in at polling locations like liberal groups had done
for years. By early that afternoon, we had won, and we made up for lost
time by calling supporters back to the polls and collecting thousands of
signatures in the remaining hours the polls were open.

But then the pandemic and the Governor's Executive Orders threw new
and unexpected obstacles in our path.  

**The Mills administration coronavirus dictates had made gathering
signatures ALMOST impossible**.

When Mills issued an executive order allowing almost all notarized
documents to be done electronically, she specifically exempted the
petitions we had to process.

Like every business, we have been hampered by having staff work from
home and the limitations on the number of people, both staff and
volunteers, we're allowed to have in our office.  But like many
businesses and organizations, we worked to figure it out.  

**Hard work and perseverance - coupled with your support - is paying
off**.

Despite all of these obstacles, volunteers and activists continued to
process the signatures they had collected.  Slowly but surely they were
sent in - thousands of them.  Each week our piles grew higher and
higher.

We developed a schedule of town office closures and availability so we
could safely and accurately get petition signatures certified by
election clerks.

Now, after weeks and weeks of legal work, our signature gatherers have
been designated as essential workers as this work falls under the
Constitutional requirements for an election effort.  They are back and
up and running, not just on the phone, but safely gathering petition
signatures.

And, that's not all.  We have developed new creative - and safe -
plans to gather more signatures in the coming weeks.

I am happy to report that right now, today, we are on the right
trajectory and glide path to make this happen.  Against overwhelming
obstacles, if we can complete our plans we should have a victory of the
signature gathering phase which will halt RCV for this year's
Presidential election and give us a shot at defeating it permanently on
the ballot this fall.

Now we need your help - today - to help move our final plans
forward.

We can move forward with our new, creative plans to gather even more
signatures with your help now, today.

A contribution to help us with postage, deliveries and new materials
here today

will help us make it over the top.

We have a plan, and it is working.  Please consider making a
contribution, here, now, today to help us defeat Ranked Choice Voting.

Sincerely,

Dr. Demi Kouzounas
Chair
Maine Republican Party

P.S.  The millions of out-of-state dollars which have flowed into Maine
to thrust Ranked Choice Voting on the public have never been
challenged.  We are now challenging them. We are fighting back. They
didn't expect we would have the perseverance and will to stop them. 
But we are working everyday to make it happen.  Please help us by
making a contribution of some amount, here, now today: donation link.

_________________

Sent to [email protected]

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