{"id":4121,"date":"2019-11-29T17:15:50","date_gmt":"2019-11-29T17:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/?p=4121"},"modified":"2023-03-22T13:02:15","modified_gmt":"2023-03-22T13:02:15","slug":"the-ins-and-outs-of-a-general-election","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/2019\/11\/29\/the-ins-and-outs-of-a-general-election\/","title":{"rendered":"The ‘ins and outs’ of a General Election"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"
Rhydian Thomas (BSc 2000)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

On 12 December millions of people will make the journey to halls and schools across the UK to cast their votes in the upcoming general election. Whilst all it takes on the day is a simple cross in a box, the process of planning and executing an election is a full-time job.<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In Wales, this responsibility falls to Cardiff alumnus Rhydian Thomas (BSc 2000) who heads up Electoral Commission Wales. We sat down with him to discuss what goes into organising a general election, and about his time as an undergraduate at Cardiff. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Commission\u2019s role<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

We began by asking Rhydian, who graduated from Cardiff with\na degree in Modern History and Politics, what role the commission plays in a\ngeneral election. He explained that there is a common misconception that it\u2019s the\ncommission which runs the election, but in fact, \u201cthe basic running of the\nelection is done by independent returning officers. There are 22 of them in\nWales and are generally the chief executives of the local authorities\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhydian tells us that the commission has three main roles in the forthcoming December poll. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Administrating the election<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Administration of a general election ranges from nominations, to the count, to absent voting, as well as evaluating the performance of returning officers and observing the election itself. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As is to be expected, it\u2019s a large operation. \u201cIn terms of\nnumbers we\u2019re talking around 7000 staff in Wales, and that includes those at\nthe counts and staff working at one of the 2300 polling stations across the\ncountry,\u201d he says.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Uniquely in Wales, the election is done completely bilingually, this includes the declaration by the returning officers that you see on TV. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s important to us that elections are run bilingually, and that individual voters can access the process bilingually at any level,\u201d he notes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Communicating with the public<\/strong> <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The commission\u2019s second role is communication, a large part\nof which focuses on voter registration. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Rhydian tells us about the massive changes in communication\nover the last few years which has resulted in the commission adapting its\npractices. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf you go back 10 years, the focus of our public awareness was TV and radio and even some print. Now that\u2019s changed. We still run TV adverts because it\u2019s still an effective way to message certain elements of the electorate. Much of our work, especially when it comes to targeting younger people and students, and those who aren\u2019t as connected to the democratic process as other groups in our society, is to get the message out there to those groups through social media\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

He points out that this isn\u2019t done solely through paid\nadvertising but also more organically by ordinary users, noting how Facebook\u2019s\n\u2018share your registration\u2019 feature and encouragement by celebrities had helped drive\nregistrations. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The third focus of Rhydian\u2019s role is around electoral regulation. \u201cWe regulate the work of the spending of political parties who take part in the election\u201d, and that, \u201cwe also give advice and guidance to parties and candidates as well.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Memories of Cardiff <\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

As a Cardiff alumnus, he spoke about his time at the\nUniversity and how it had shaped his outlook. \u201cI come from Ammanford in Carmarthenshire,\na small town in West Wales, and growing up you think you\u2019ve got a grasp on\nsociety and your ways of thinking. I think what being at Cardiff taught me was\nthat were many ways of thinking about things\u201d.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This wasn\u2019t just in seminars and lectures, but through his\nown personal life as an undergraduate. \u201cIn my flat I was living with guys from\nLondon, Cardiff, France, Greece and Zambia, all very different people with different\nideas. I was surrounded by people from all over the world, it was a truly\ninternational context.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

His interest in elections was evident from the start. \u201cOn my\nfirst day, after my parents had dropped me off, I met up with my flatmates and\nwent down to the Students\u2019 Union. However, it was the night of the 1997\ndevolution referendum to establish the Welsh National Assembly, so I made sure\nI left early enough to watch the result!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finally, we asked about his favourite Cardiff pub. After\ntrying lots of places in his early student years, he eventually settled on one\nspot. \u201cWe spent a lot of time in the Taf in the Students\u2019 Union, mainly because\nof the cheap drinks and good music!\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"We talked to Rhydian Thomas (BA 2000) about his vital role in our democracy and how his time at Cardiff University set him on his career path.","protected":false},"author":904,"featured_media":4140,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-4121","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-cardiff-connect"],"meta_box":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/904"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4121"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4148,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4121\/revisions\/4148"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4121"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4121"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.cardiff.ac.uk\/alumni\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4121"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}