The Election Before the Election

Why the Primary Is the Most Important Vote Nobody Casts

I met a young man outside a grocery store after the June 2nd Primary.

He stopped me because he saw one of my signs in his neighborhood and found me on social media. He was in his late twenties, passionate and articulate about everything he believed was wrong with the country — the costs, the broken promises, the politicians who forgot who sent them. He told me he was praying for someone different to show up and that he was going to vote for me. I told him I was no longer in the race. When I asked if he voted in the primary, he told me he did not. He did not know it happened. He did not know what a primary was, why it mattered, or that the race he cared so deeply about was already significantly shaped before the general election he was planning to participate in.

He was uninformed about how his own democracy works — not because he lacked intelligence or curiosity, but because no one had ever taught him. He was passionate about the outcome and had never been given the tools to meaningfully participate in the process. That failure belongs to our civic institutions, not to him.

Civic education in this country is a national emergency. We have built a democracy that depends entirely on an informed and participating citizenry, and then systematically failed to produce one. The most important operating manual most people will ever need — the one that explains how power works, who holds it, and how to hold it accountable — has been reduced to a single semester in middle school that most people barely remember.

The most common confusion I encountered on the campaign trail was the difference between a primary election and a general election. Most Americans treat the November general election as the real election. What most people do not realize is that the field of candidates has already been determined — and significantly narrowed — by a primary election that only a small fraction of voters participated in. The voters who show up to primaries tend to be the most ideologically committed on each end of the spectrum, which means the candidates produced reflect the preferences of the base — not the broader electorate. In some races, by the time the general election arrives, the outcome has effectively already been determined — because the parties and their special interests positioned their preferred candidate to win through money, messaging, and infrastructure long before most voters were paying attention. This just became even more entrenched.

In June 2026, the Supreme Court ruled in NRSC v. FEC that political parties may now spend unlimited money directly supporting their candidates. A restriction that previously limited what parties could coordinate with campaigns is gone. The party machinery can now pour unlimited resources behind whoever they choose — making it harder than ever for an outsider, an Independent, or anyone without party backing to compete on a level playing field.

Primaries also operate differently in almost every state, which adds another layer of confusion. In closed primary states — including New York and Florida — only registered party members may vote in their party’s primary. Independent voters are excluded entirely. Now, do not get me started on the tactics of the party duopoly. In many states they have deliberately constructed legal roadblocks to prevent Independent candidates from running legitimately — through prohibitive signature requirements, filing fees, restrictive ballot access laws, and other structural barriers designed to protect incumbents and keep outside voices off the ballot. However, in open primary states like California, any registered voter may cross party lines. We use what is called a jungle primary or top-two system — every candidate from every party appears on the same ballot, every voter participates regardless of registration, and the top two vote-getters advance to November no matter their party.

Most California voters do not know this. During this campaign I met registered Democrats and Republicans who did not know they could vote outside of their party registration. I met people who wanted to vote outside the two parties but were afraid of wasting their vote, so they voted for the lesser of two evils inside a system they openly distrusted. Their fear led them to cast exactly the vote they did not want to cast. They believed their vote would not count, and in holding that belief — THEY made it true.

One solution that directly addresses this fear is Ranked Choice Voting. Under a ranked choice system, voters rank candidates in order of preference — first choice, second, third. If no candidate wins a majority outright, the candidate with the fewest votes is eliminated and those voters’ second choices are counted instead. The process continues until someone reaches a majority. The result is that voting for an Independent or a third-party candidate is never wasted — if your first choice does not win, your vote transfers to your next preference.

You never have to choose between what you want and what you think can win. Ranked Choice Voting has been successfully implemented in Alaska, Maine, and New York City. It is one of the most practical and meaningful reforms we could make to restore real voter choice and break the stranglehold the two-party system has over who gets to run and who gets to win.

Knowing how to vote is only half the battle — knowing which level of government to hold accountable is the other. The confusion between what the federal government controls versus what state and local governments control is equally damaging. When something affects people’s lives — a policy, a new law, a regulation — most people do not know which level of government is responsible, which representative to call, or which election to prioritize.

The federal government sets the floor on rights and programs. State governments set the specifics above that floor. Local governments control zoning, policing, school boards, and most of the public services people actually interact with daily. A citizen who directs their energy at the wrong level of government accomplishes nothing — and walks away having confirmed their belief that engagement is pointless.

The social media dimension may be the most urgent of all. Most Americans now receive their understanding of civic reality through platforms whose algorithms are engineered to surface the most emotionally activating, outrage-producing content available — not the most accurate. Misinformation spreads six times faster than correction on major platforms. A fabricated claim reaches millions within hours.

The correction reaches a fraction of that audience days later. I witnessed this directly during the campaign. Voters shared things they had seen on social media as established fact — about policies, candidates, and how the system worked — that were partially true, significantly distorted, or simply fabricated. The misinformation had already done its work long before I arrived at the door.

The solutions are not complicated. Civics must be restored as a sustained requirement through every year of school — not a single forgotten semester. Media literacy must be taught alongside reading and mathematics. States must simplify voter education so every citizen understands the rules of the election they are participating in before they participate. Trusted, nonpartisan civic media that explains the system honestly and without agenda is essential — which is a meaningful part of why I will be building True North. That, however, is a subject for another time.

That young man outside the grocery store deserved those tools long before he encountered me in a parking lot. Every citizen in this country deserves them. Democracy does not sustain itself. It requires people who understand it, trust it enough to participate, and have the knowledge to hold it accountable when it fails them. We have been failing that investment for a very long time, and the consequences are visible in every election, every poll measuring civic trust, and every conversation I had at every door over four months of campaigning as an Independent.

The will to change this starts with deciding to treat civic education as the emergency it is — and refusing to let the system continue to benefit from the confusion it has never been motivated to correct. Where there is a will, there is a way.

The real question is: how do we tap into that will? Perhaps the answer is already emerging. Gallup now shows that 46 percent of American voters identify as Independent or No Party Preference — the highest number ever recorded. Is that not the will of the people speaking? Is that not millions of Americans saying, in the clearest possible terms, that they are done with a system that was never truly designed for them? The Independent movement is not a political trend.

It is a civic awakening. People are not leaving their parties because they stopped caring. They are leaving because they care too much to keep pretending the system is working. That energy — that frustration, that hunger for something honest — is the will. Civic education is the way.

An informed, engaged, and activated citizenry that understands how the system works and refuses to let it work against them is the most powerful force in a democracy. We have that force available to us. We simply have to decide to use it.

With belief in an informed and engaged citizenry --

Nina Linh

True North | WonderSeed Foundation | A New Way Forward