Editing Talk:1958 French constitutional referendum (section)

== Differences in data in different sources ==

Hi to all, 

At the moment I am not in a position to investigate the differences in the figures for this referendum result, but do hope by the end of 2022 to assemble data from enough sources to see what the issues are, and how quite different numbers can be quoted for one set of events. 
I am writing this to give other editors notice that we are going to have to have a look at more than one source, and more than one set of figures.  

For example, one of the questions is sorting out what are the correct numbers for abstentions and  blank/void votes in St Pierre and Miquelon.  The figures are quite small compared to other questions, but we do need to get all of the figures correct, not just the large ones.  

The much larger figures to check and examine do include the questions raised about the votes from Guinea, which definitely formed part of the electorate for the referendum, and therefore must be included in a correct set of total figures.  The independence of Guinea was a result of the vote, and did not happen before it.  There are quite a few other differences and discrepancies in the figures for the referendum, and the differences between the figures in different sources is certainly going to be tricky to sort out.  

If we can reach a consensus on a single source of data, or the majority of authoritative sources, it should be easier to arrive at a stable result, but no-one should assume as of now that they already have found a position and worked with others to make it a consensus position.  I certainly do not make that assumption about the sources I already know about, and so look forward to working this out with all of you.  

There are articles on this subject in 12 different languages, so we certainly should try to achieve a consensus result in English and French before suggesting any amendments needed in the other 10.  

To start off there are three different source references with different sets of figures in the current English-language and French-language Wikipedia articles, which I show here if anyone wishes to examine them.  By the end of 2022 I hope to have found more sources to add, but at least these three sources do illustrate what I was talking about above.  

      https://www.legifrance.gouv.fr/jorf/id/JORFTEXT000000571394 

      ''Elections in Europe: A data handbook'' by Dieter Nohlen & Philip Stöver (2010) ISBN 978-3-8329-5609-7  

      http://www.sudd.ch/event.php?lang=en&id=fr011958  


Look forward to coming back to this when I have found and examined more sources and data.  


[[User:Redhill54|Redhill54]] ([[User talk:Redhill54|talk]]) 13:53, 6 September 2022 (UTC)