“Sunny then cloudy” forecast for Thursday when you head to the polls

The Met Office is predicting a dry day for Thursday as Wrexham looks to vote for the new Senedd and Police and Crime Commissioner.

Yesterday and today have seen a band of bad weather pass through the area, however the forecast currently has Wrexham and Clwyd South down for a dry day on Thursday with sun and highs of 10C.

For those looking to get down to the polling booth in the hours before the 10PM cut off, the forecast says it should be a dry sunny evening, with sunset due at 8:48pm.

There is a long held belief more people turn out to vote in nicer weather, however historically turnout for what are now known as the Senedd elections have been low, with 20,354 (39.5%) of registered people voting in Wrexham back in 2016 and during the same election 22,159 (40.9%) turned out in Clwyd South – and not everyone who could be registered to vote is registered!

On Thursday you will be asked to vote for three things, the Senedd Constituency representative, a regional representative – and separately the Police and Crime Commissioner.

When voting for members of the Senedd, you will have two votes.

One for a member to represent your constituency, and one to represent your Welsh region – also known as ‘list’ candidates. There are 20 people elected to represent five regions of Wales, with the North Wales region returning four representatives.
The constituency vote is run as first past the post, with a straightforward who gets the most votes wins system.

The second box you will mark is for the regional seat, and you vote for a party. Each party has submitted a list of candidates in order (below) and a formula called the Additional Member System is used to determine who is elected, the aim is to help to overcome the imbalance often associated with first-past-the-post elections. It is important to look at the candidate lists on the table below, as they are the people you are voting for!

Here’s how the regional system works:

• each party or group in a region presents a list of candidates;
• electors vote for the person they want to represent their region;
• the votes for the regions are usually counted after the constituency votes have been decided;
• each party’s total is divided by 1 + the number of Members of the Senedd it already has in that region;
• the party with the highest total after this calculation gets the next seat and the person on top of its list is elected;
• the same pattern is repeated until all four regional seats have been decided.

The Police and Crime Commissioner will be elected under the supplementary vote system:

• A voter can vote for a first and second choice candidate they want to elect.
• If a candidate obtains more than 50% of the first choice votes, they will be declared elected.
• If no candidate obtains more than 50% of the first choice votes, all candidates except for those in first and second place are eliminated.
• The ballot papers showing a first preference for one of the eliminated candidates are checked for their second preference.
• Any second preference votes for the remaining two candidates are then added to their first preference votes and the candidate with the most votes is elected.

A lot of work has gone into making sure polling stations are as safe as possible on May 6, but you can help by following a few simple steps when you go to vote:

• Wear a face covering.
• Bring your own pen or pencil.
• Clean you hands when entering and leaving the polling station.
• Keep a safe distance from others.
• Take your polling card – you don’t need it to vote – but can help speed things up

Don’t go to the polling station if you have any Covid symptoms, or if you’ve been asked to isolate.

If you develop symptoms or have to isolate last minute, you have until 5pm on polling day to apply for an emergency proxy vote. This allows you to nominate someone you trust to vote on your behalf. For info on how to apply for an emergency proxy vote, contact Wrexham Council’s electoral registration team on 01978 292020.

In Wrexham there are are eight candidates running in the Senedd constituency election:

In Clwyd South there are seven candidates looking for your vote in the Senedd constituency election:

The following are the candidates for the North Wales regional lists, in order selected by the party they are standing for. Some may have taken part in the North.Wales Q&A’s if they are standing for a constituency as well.