A current take on an Edgar Allan Poe quote might be “believe none of what you read or hear, and only half of what you see”, would serve as a fair caution for media consumers. Until now. There is a second instance of apparent outright fraud in political polling.
For the second time in just three months, a political polling company has admitted publishing completely fabricated election surveys.
The latest is Wedgewood Polls, which published nearly 20 purported surveys in races across the country.
The great Real Clear Politics wasn’t fooled and never included the faker. Read why they are the polling average Gold Standard here. The polling analysis website FiftyPlusOne investigated, challenged the firm’s data, and Wedgewood admitted the polls were fake.
Here is their press release:
The phony numbers had already made their way into established polling databases and even campaign messaging.
In August, another company, Median Strategies, admitted fabricating a poll in the Los Angeles mayoral race involving Karen Bass and Nithya Raman. And as of this writing, there is a third possible fake poll, SoCal Strategies, which the Washington Post investigated and appears to have published national polls, and then, poof, disappeared from the face of the earth. And they may have been connected to Wedgewood.
None of the cases involved simply getting the numbers wrong. The surveys themselves were invented.
Wedgewood claims it was an experiment to expose weaknesses in the polling industry.
But the larger question is how fabricated polling can be published, circulated and accepted as legitimate election research. Three instances of fake polls and/or fake pollsters.
If you took a poll, the public would reject polls.
AI helped prepare this story
