Fake polling from mysterious company highlights danger of unvetted election surveys
Median Strategies admitted the Los Angeles poll was fake after Bass’s campaign shared it, highlighting how unverified surveys can spread before fact-checking.
- On social media last week, Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass shared a Median Strategies poll showing her leading the mayoral race by about 12 percent; she deleted the post after the survey was revealed as fake.
- Median Strategies admitted Monday that the purported results were fake, stating it created the project as a "short-term social experiment" to examine how unverified polling information spreads without independent verification.
- Within fifteen minutes of Median's post, the price of a "yes" contract on Kalshi regarding Bass winning the mayoral election rose two cents, moving from about 63 cents to about 65 cents.
- Bass campaign spokesman Alex Stack stated "any bad faith attempts to influence elections should be investigated," while major aggregators including The New York Times excluded the data due to lacking transparency about methodology and ownership.
- Veteran Republican pollster Chris Wilson said the proliferation of fabricated polls makes it "never been easier to make invented numbers look legitimate," warning that campaigns have every incentive to amplify favorable data before verification occurs.
13 Articles
13 Articles
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Photo of adhesives with the phrase "I voted" at Maples Elementary School, on the day of the primary elections, Tuesday, August 4, 2026, in Dearborn, Michigan. AP/Nic Antaya An American company admitted to having invented election research results as part of a social experiment to show how quickly false information could circulate without verification. "Median Strategies" surveys involved primary disputes in California and Wisconsin, in the Unite…
What to know about fake election poll numbers shared and retracted by a mysterious company
A mysterious political firm admitted to fabricating multiple election polls this month. None of the fake results from a company called Median Strategies appeared in Associated Press coverage.
Santa Maria Times
Independent EspañolNEW YORK (AP) — In the midst of a fierce struggle for re-election, Karen Bass, the mayor of Los Angeles, said last week on social media that a new poll was proof that her campaign...
Associated Press News
What to know about the fake election poll numbers shared and retracted by a mysterious company
A mysterious political firm admitted to fabricating multiple election polls this month. None of the fake results from a company called Median Strategies appeared in Associated Press coverage.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 42% of the sources lean Left, 42% of the sources are Center
Factuality
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