President Biden’s recent announcement that he is withdrawing from the 2024 presidential race marks a significant turn in our political landscape, and I’m sure you may have questions about what could come next.

To be clear, this is not the first time an incumbent president has decided not to run for re-election. Our democracy is resilient and able to move forward after changes at the top of the ballot – and the decision that matters most is still the one voters make in November.

As we’re already seeing, each party has clear rules in place to select a new presidential nominee at the convention – used most recently after President Lyndon Baines Johnson’s withdrawal in 1968. And once they formally do so, Common Cause will do our part to make sure all voters, Democrats, Republicans, and Independents, are empowered to make an informed choice.

We are also actively monitoring any legal challenges – but according to Constitutional and legal experts, any challenges are unlikely to succeed because until the convention happens, nominees are just presumptive, and nobody is the official candidate until the delegates have voted.

The fact is, there’s a lot of uncertainty and disinformation out there right now. And if you’re like me, you’re probably bracing yourself for a deluge of misogynistic and racist attacks to taint the public conversation – the sort of thing that every American should condemn.

But I want you to know that one thing remains clear: Common Cause’s purpose in this election will not change.

Protecting voters. Exposing disinformation. Defusing political violence. We choose to do this work because we believe our country can be better than it is, and we will need you by our side as we strive for the multi-racial democracy we aspire to.

So while the political talking heads speculate, we’re staying laser focused on making sure all eligible voters, no matter their political affiliation, can cast their ballots this election and have those ballots count.

Already, we’ve recruited thousands of volunteers to protect voters, with new ones signing up at ProtectTheVote.net every single day. Those volunteers (and you might even be one of them!) have already helped thousands of voters this year – and we’re just getting started.

It’s no small commitment for our dedicated volunteers to sacrifice their nights and weekends to defend democracy – and we owe it to them to meet this moment. Training and equipping every single volunteer that signs up this year will be expensive and time-consuming, but 100% worth it.

This election, as it always should be, is about choosing what kind of future we want, and that’s a choice only the voters have the power to make.