Wednesday, July 8, 2015

Search Challenge (7/8/15): Data for the Greek referendum?



The Greeks voted no... 

 ... on the July 5, 2015 referendum about whether to accept (or reject) the austerity conditions for continued fiscal support from EU to Greece.  

 This led Regular Reader Miguel to pose the following question as this week's Challenge.  

 He points out that we've all heard the stunning official outcome reported endlessly on the news.  It's clear that the government of Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras gathered a large margin of No votes; but how do we really know the outcome?  Is there a way to fact-check what we're hearing in the news?  Where does the original data for all this reportage come from?  
  

1.  Can you find the OFFICIAL source of the vote data?  (That is, the official government reporting on votes by precincts.)  
2.  Once you've found that data, can you graph or plot it in some way, voting-area by voting-area?  (Ideally, we'd like to see if there were some regions of Greece that were especially Yes or especially No in their voting.)  

 As usual, please let us know how you figured this one out.  What searches did you do?  What tools were helpful?  

 (And, if you're a teacher, is this the kind of Challenge you might want to use in your class?  In what kind of class do you think this would be useful?  Thoughts?)  
(Thanks for the idea Miguel!)   


Posted by at

19 comments:

  1. remmijJuly 8, 2015 at 9:00 AM

    tried to keep it simple…
    used [breakdown of greek referendum vote] - found this source, seems to have comprehensive vote analysis: greece.greekreporter.com/
    July 5 Greek bailout referendum
    Greek Ministry of Interior
    [breakdown of greek referendum vote map]
    wiki subject & map - Percentage of No votes
    interactive map - The Guardian
    referendum site
    one view, in time

    ReplyDelete
  2. Ramon GonzalezJuly 8, 2015 at 9:42 AM

    Good day, Dr. Russell, fellow SearchResearchers

    Searched:

    [official greece referendum votes counting]

    Greek referendum: No campaign storms to victory with 61.31% of the vote - as it happened Links to :

    Final result Mentions Greece Ministry of Interior. And

    track the results Shows a Map that shows how they voted.

    [greece ministry of interior] and [greece ministry of interior intext:referendum]

    Ministry shows results by Major Regions and Elect. Districts. Gives source to answer 1.

    [who vote in greece referendum]


    Answers

    1. Can you find the OFFICIAL source of the vote data? (That is, the official government reporting on votes by precincts.)

    Referendum July 2015. Ministry of Interior.

    2. Once you've found that data, can you graph or plot it in some way, voting-area by voting-area? (Ideally, we'd like to see if there were some regions of Greece that were especially Yes or especially No in their voting.)

    With [public data google greece referendum]

    Greek Referendum 2015 : “NO” voter demographics

    Need to work with data to create graph. Do you looking for Major Regions or by Districts?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ramon GonzalezJuly 9, 2015 at 9:30 AM

      With the data obtained with Ministry of Interior:

      1. Uploaded to Google Spreadsheets.
      2. Data was text so went to text editor and changed as Dr. Russell showed us.
      3. Copy/Paste values as number.
      4. Searched for Max and Minimum values.
      5. Created Graph.

      NO: Max Value: 73.77% Min Value: 51.17 %
      Yes: Max Value: 48.83% Min Value; 26.23 %


      Delete
    2. remmijJuly 9, 2015 at 1:00 PM

      nice graph Ramón, but with land/seascapes like this it is understandable that the Greeks might be distracted from numbers & politics… and perhaps reality…
      graph with a Greek twist ;) very symmetrical
      the full pic
      accompanying background tunes

      Delete
    3. Ramon GonzalezJuly 10, 2015 at 8:22 AM

      Good Morning, Remmij. You are right, with that view is hard to focus on other stuff.

      Graph is very symmetrical indeed, and I prefer yours to mine. Also, thanks for the other links, sheeps look great and looking for new location shows the beauty of Greece.

      A long time ago, saw a program that showed the beauty of that land. If you search [Narda Grecia] videos will show part of that show. BTW, Narda always made great shows about travels, Japan and London are some of them.

      Delete
    4. Ramon GonzalezJuly 10, 2015 at 9:22 AM

      BBC Mundo article: ""Estoy confundido": ¿se rindió o no Grecia ante sus acreedores?...Casi todo lo que querían los acreedores está allí, con un par de giros y conceptos suavizados, pero nada nocivo para ellos."

      Delete
  3. jonJuly 8, 2015 at 10:37 AM

    1. Can you find the OFFICIAL source of the vote data? (That is, the official government reporting on votes by precincts.)

    2. Once you've found that data, can you graph or plot it in some way, voting-area by voting-area? (Ideally, we'd like to see if there were some regions of Greece that were especially Yes or especially No in their voting.)

    [greek referendum results]

    Suggestion is [referendum results by constituency] to which i added greek, so [greek referendum results by constituency] finds first up is Wikipedia which references "Official REsults"

    http://www.referendum2015gov.gr/en/news/ellinika-telika-apotelesmata-dimopsifismatos-5is-iouliou-2015/

    Which links to Ministry of Interior and Administrative Reconstruction which finds by Electoral District all the No and another all the Yes

    http://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/e/public/index.html?lang=en#{"cls":"party","params":{"id":102}}

    Shown is each district by name with percentage Yes or No (on another page) and number of votes

    1. Yes

    2. All districts voted No as shown on the Ministry of Interior site which has the map too

    http://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/e/public/index.html?lang=en#{%22cls%22:%22main%22,%22params%22:{}}


    jon this was a fun chasehttp://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/e/public/index.html?lang=en#{%22cls%22:%22main%22,%22params%22:{}}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dan RussellJuly 13, 2015 at 8:00 PM

      I didn't see the link to Referendum2015gov.gr immediately. It looks like all the same data at the Eklogs.ypes.gr site had. Nice work!

      Delete
  4. remmijJuly 8, 2015 at 11:01 AM

    fwiw - found indications that some Greek assets have already been liquidated and relocated… not sure where their new homes are…but there must be money there… Opa!
    acropolises on the move
    can't pinpoint

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. remmijJuly 8, 2015 at 1:47 PM

      … still working to narrow down the new location… it is a new world… off to buy some Chinese stocks…
      on a hill
      another angle
      seems similar… and there is new construction
      int'l flagpole

      Delete
  5. jonJuly 8, 2015 at 11:06 AM

    Forgot to add

    http://googlemapsmania.blogspot.ca/2015/07/greek-referendum-maps.html which sports a lovely

    Map made by The Guardian from the official results that complements the statistics previously mentioned. BUt, as this page points out
    The Guardian and the Greek Ministry of Interior both have interactive maps of the results showing the percentage of 'yes' and 'no' votes in each region. The maps show that in every single region in Greece more people voted 'no' than 'yes'.

    One of the closest results seems to have been in central Athens, where only 53% voted 'no'. However the lack of a zoom button on both maps means its a little tricky to actually pick out central Athens.

    The little grey area on both maps is the self-governed region of Mount Athos. Presumably Athos didn't participate in the referendum. The region doesn't allow women to enter the peninsula, so presumably democracy is out of the question as well.

    jon

    ReplyDelete
  6. Rosemary MJuly 8, 2015 at 12:43 PM

    Quick answer with this link. http://www.publicissue.gr/en/2837/greek-referendum-2015-no-voter-demographics/

    Query [demographics of greece referendum] and supplemental information regarding demographics

    http://www.indexmundi.com/greece/demographics_profile.html

    Had the seniors vote been the deciding vote we would have a different result.

    ReplyDelete
  7. remmijJuly 8, 2015 at 5:35 PM

    Judge Rosenberg is available…
    looked at the ballot again… perhaps they should have gone the 'chad' route for the OXI/NAI choice… too emotionally black and/or white/cut & dried… but it's all greek to me. (somebody had to)
    there may be a 'glitch' in their future — for ill or fortune, Pythia will not say… is there a goat about?

    ReplyDelete
  8. UnknownJuly 9, 2015 at 5:34 AM

    I started by Google image searching [Greek Referendum Map], Which gave me various break downs of the voting, along with the sources they came from for example the UK's Guardian, a credible independent source, had a map of how the vote count in different regions of the country. http://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2015/jul/05/live-results-greek-referendum

    I found another map, that showed more clearly where the yes vote was strongest, however it did not provide a source for where the election data came from: http://images.dailykos.com/images/152556/original/GreekRef.png?1436217538

    If I had more time to spend on this, I would look at more maps to see if they list their source, and would translate [Referendum map] in to Greek (or other European Languages) and then search that in google images, and look to see if any of the results list their sources.

    ReplyDelete
  9. jonJuly 9, 2015 at 7:02 AM

    It occurred to that we did not even know what was the question put to the voters.

    http://www.wsj.com/articles/greek-voters-to-decide-on-convoluted-bailout-question-july-5-1435691134

    Wall Street Journal points out it is probably the most complicated question ever put to voters. I sort of understand it now.

    jon

    ReplyDelete
  10. remmijJuly 9, 2015 at 9:19 AM

    … from the home of Socrates, Aristotle, Plato, Pythagoras, Pyrrho, Sallustius of Emesa & many others, sorting out yes (Ναι) or no(όχι) wouldn't seem to be that large a challenge…
    unpleasant - yes, incomprehensible - no
    the ballot from the Interior Ministry:
    includes english translation
    a little more current… and perhaps difficult to take in: Kiarina Kordela το κεφάλι μου σφύζει!
    "Her primary approach and focus is on the relation between economic structures and metaphysics in secular capitalist modernity. Kordela is known for her reinterpretation of Lacanian psychoanalysis and Foucauldian biopolitics using the work of Spinoza."
    somehow this fits in… "There's something happening here What it is ain't exactly clear… "
    there is a goat in the outtakes…
    1967

    ReplyDelete
  11. UnknownJuly 9, 2015 at 12:03 PM

    Tried a greek government site search - no results; google search for greece governement July 5 2015 referendum voting results- no results
    Searched : greece government official site voting data
    Used search tools to limit by date.
    data was the word that got me this site.
    Ministry of the Interior :
    http://ekloges.ypes.gr/current/e/public/index.html?lang=en#{"cls":"main","params":{}}

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Dan RussellJuly 13, 2015 at 8:00 PM

      The Ekloges site is what I found as well. Nicely done, Jill!

      Delete

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