Pollster admits to making up numbers, infuriating Democrats ahead of midterms
A so-called pollster whose surveys were widely reported on in the US media has admitted to fabricating their numbers outright as an "experimental project".
Wedgewood Polls issued a series of false polls with surprising results.
Wedgewood created a series of fake polls to trick the media. X
The brand new pollster was treated with some credibility because of the resume of Jack Sims, who had experience in the polling industry.
But after political news site FiftyPlusOne started asking questions, the company confessed to the fakery on Wednesday.
"Having previously worked in the polling and research sector, we watched as the public's trust in polling eroded alongside a rise in unverified, low-quality methodology," the statement read.
"We wanted to test a simple hypothesis: How easy is it for an entirely fabricated polling firm to gain traction, be taken seriously, and expose how little scrutinisation exists in media and public commentary?
"The short answer: Far too easy."
In a statement, the New York Times said it included Wedgewood polls in their database because the group answered a series of questions about their identity, methodology and sources of their funding.
The pollster’s X account still has a post pinned to their page calling for people to spend money on their polls.
“Interested in sponsoring an upcoming poll? We’d love to work with you at an affordable rate!” the post reads.
Wedgewood managed to cause a stir with a series of polls which contradicted expectations but were not beyond the bounds of credibility.
Several showed left-wing Democrats leading in general elections in Michigan and Wisconsin, in contrast to previous other polling.
Another recent poll from Wedgewood showed the Democratic Senate candidate in Mississippi surprisingly close to the Republican incumbent.
Before Wedgewood's fakery was exposed yesterday, Democrats announced they would be putting more than a million dollars in advertising for the Mississippi race, a highly unusual move for the very conservative state.
Meanwhile, a Michigan politician has blamed the pollster for costing her in her election bid.
A poll from Wedgewood bolstered the campaign of Abdul El-Sayed, who narrowly won the Michigan Senate primary. Bloomberg
Mallory McMorrow said donations "dried up" and she was hounded by reporters to drop out after a Wedgewood poll showed her support in the Senate primary had dropped to single digits.
"Sure, a point was proven. Polling is broken," she said.
"But tens of thousands of people poured their hearts, time, energy, hard-earned money into something they believed in - for a year-and-a-half, and it was treated like a game.
"Our volunteers gave their all. And then some. I felt like I had let so many of them down."
She criticised the media for taking the Wedgewood polls at face value.
"Trust is already at an all-time low. We don't get out of this mess without rebuilding trust," she said.
“And media – who loves to ride the drama of a pollercoaster – needs to take a hard look at what’s legitimate and what’s not.”
Nate Silver, the polling aggregator whose website 538 popularised the mass obsession of political surveys, said removing Wedgewood from his database resulted in a very mild swing towards Republicans.
“These polls tended to be ~1 point more favourable for (Democrats) than the consensus,” he wrote on X.
"Overall, our forecast is little changed, though that's partly because some strong generic ballot polls entered this AM for Democrats."
House Speaker Mike Johnson crowed about the confession from Wedgewood.
"I’ve been sounding the alarms that the polls are WRONG—and new evidence of that is now piling up!" he said in a statement.
"Polling organisations are being forced to admit they are dramatically under-sampling Republican support, but the media is delighted to use it all to depress GOP turnout."
Polling from established pollsters has shown Democrats remaining in a commanding position ahead of next month’s midterms.
Share a tip-off, video or photo with us
