Polling firm says it faked data as 'social experiment'

Wedgewood Polls confessed after invistigation by FiftyPlusOne; Michigan senator says fake polls harmed her campaign

By LineZotpaper

Published21 October 2026

Read Time3 min

Wedgewood Polls, a US polling firm that has been picked up by national media outlets including Newsweek, the Hill and the New York Times, has admitted to fabricating its survey data, claiming the project was a 'social experiment' designed to expose the lack of scrutiny in the politcal polling industry. The admission came after the polling analysis site FiftyPlusOne confronted the firm with discrepancies in its raw data.

Wedgewood Polls released a statement on Tuesday on social media acknowledging that its polls were fabricated. The statement described the project as a 'wake-up call' intened 'to demonstrate the vulnerabilities, lack of oversight, and overall low barrier to entry in the modern political polling industry.'".

The firm said its fabricated numbers were given 'instant credibility across national media platforms.' Publications that reproduced Wedgewood's fraudulent surveys included Newsweek, the Hill, Breitbart, the Daily Beast and the Washingon Examiner. Polling databases run by the New York Times, Nate Silver, VoteHub and FiftyPlusOne also included its results.

After the admission, Decision Desk HQ said it had removed 17 polls from its race-level lists and averages, and the New York Times issued an editor's note saying all of Wedgewood's polls had been removed from its poll tracking project.

Wedgewood first emerged in June, billing itself as an independent election survey firm. Within weeks, a columnist noted its first poll of the Louisiana Repulican primary runoff had been 'wildly wrong.' In August, Straight Arrow News found its website, hosted on Google Sites, listed no employee names, phone number or location. Its website was registered on 26 June and its X account created that same month. An Urban MIlwaukee journalist called it 'a shady outfit' after a Wisconsin primary poll showed Francesca Hong at 30% when legitimate polls had her far lower.

Democractic pollster Adam Carlson, who had communicated with someone at Wedgewood, said the person told him the two-person firm included one progressive and one conservative. They declined to reveal their identities or participate in a video call, citing prior doxing and harassment.

FifyPlusOne recieved a tip earlier in October suggesting Wedgewood had been faking data. They obtained raw data for its Mississippi Senate survey, conducted via online platform Pollfish, and identified discrepancies. After being confronted, Wedgewood published its statement.

Michigan state senator Mallory McMorrow, who dropped out of a contentious US Senate primary on 5 July, said that Wedgewood's numbers indicated her support had plunged. As a result, she said, her donations dried up, volunteers were 'devastated', and reporters 'hounded' her with calls to drop out. 'Sure, a point was proven. Polling is broken,' she wrote on X. 'But tens of thousands of people poured their hearts... into somthing they believed in... and it was treated like a game.'

The incident follows a similar case in August in witch the Guardian tracked down a 21-year-old recent graduate behind the anonymous site Median Strategies, which had put out widely shared fake election polling in Wisconsin, Nevada and California. That site also described a 'short-term social experiment' and shut down after questions from a reporter. The graduate, Rahil Prakash, told the Guardian: 'I wanted to see if fake polls could really penetrate the ecosystem that easily. And as it turned out, it could.'

Analysis

Why This Matters

The ease with which fabricated polls entered mainstream media and aggregation platforms undermines public trust in election polling at a time of heightened political polarisation.
Individual campaigns, such as Senator McMorrow's, can be materially harmed by false data that shapes donor and media narratives.
The incidents expose a lack of vetting in the polling industry and among media outlets that rely on unverifed survey results.

Backround

Polling has long faced critisism for methodological flaws, but the Wedgewood and Median Strategies cases represent a new level of deception: deliberate fabrication presented as legimate research. Neither firm had a track record or transparent operations, yet their data was absorbed by major outlets and aggregation sites. The industry operates with little formal overisight, and entry barriers are low, a website and social media account sufficed for both firms to gain credibility.

Key Perspectives

Wedgewood Polls (as stated in its admission): The project was a 'social experiment' meant to demonstrate how easily unverifed figures can enter politcal narratives, and hopes to spark reform in media vetting and data aggregation. Politcal campaigns and canidates (e.g., Mallory McMorrow): Fabricated polls can cause real-world harm, draining donations, damaging volunteer morale and forcing premature exits. They argue the experiment was reckless and eroded trust further. Media and aggregation sites: The New York Times and Decsion Desk HQ acted to remove the invalid polls after the confession, but the incident raises questions about their pre-pubication checks. Critics say the bar for inclusion was too low.

What to Watch

Whether FiftyPlusOne or other groups release detalled methodology for identifying fabricated survey data, which could become a template for the industry.
Potential for increased calls for regulation of election polling, including requirements for disclosing methodology and raw data.
Whether more fabricated polls from other firms surface as scrutiny intensifies.

Sources

Pollster admits to fabricating data for ‘social experiment’ to expose flaws of industry · World news | The Guardian

Checked

10 claims in this story checked against 1 source: 8 supported.

Show each claim

SupportedWedgewood Polls said it fabricated survey data as a “social experiment.”World news | The Guardian: “A polling firm has admitted to using fabricated data in surveys that were picked up by national media outlets in the US, claiming the project was a “social experiment” designed to expose the lack of scrutiny over the sector.”
SupportedMallory McMorrow said Wedgewood’s polling harmed her campaign.World news | The Guardian: “As a result, her donations dried up, volunteers were left “devastated”, and reporters “hounded” her with calls to drop out of the race, she said.”
Partly supportedThe opening says national media outlets including the New York Times picked up Wedgewood’s polls.World news | The Guardian: “Publications that reproduced Wedgewood Polls’s fraudulent surveys included Newsweek, the Hill, Breitbart, the Daily Beast and the Washington Examiner, and those that included its results in their polling databases included the New York Times, Nate Silver, VoteHub and FiftyPlusOne.”
SupportedFiftyPlusOne confronted Wedgewood with discrepancies in its raw data, after which the firm published its statement.World news | The Guardian: “They obtained Wedgewood’s raw data for its Mississippi Senate survey, their most recent survey, which the company said had been conducted using online survey platform Pollfish. FiftyPlusOne said it identified discrepancies in the data and confronted Wedgewood with its findings. The firm then published its statement on X.”
Partly supportedWedgewood’s Mississippi Senate survey was conducted using Pollfish.World news | The Guardian: “their most recent survey, which the company said had been conducted using online survey platform Pollfish.”
SupportedWedgewood said its fabricated numbers were given “instant credibility across national media platforms.”World news | The Guardian: ““Our fabricated numbers were given instant credibility across national media platforms,” the statement said.”
SupportedMcMorrow wrote, “Sure, a point was proven. Polling is broken.”World news | The Guardian: “McMorrow wrote on X: “Sure, a point was proven. Polling is broken. 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.”
SupportedDecision Desk HQ removed 17 polls from its race-level lists and averages.World news | The Guardian: “After Wedgewood’s admission, the election results and analysis site Decision Desk HQ said it had removed 17 polls from its race-level polling lists and averages”
SupportedRahil Prakash said he wanted to see whether fake polls could penetrate the political information ecosystem easily.World news | The Guardian: ““I wanted to see if fake polls could really penetrate the ecosystem that easily,” Rahil Prakash told the Guardian when reached by phone. “And as it turned out, it could.””
SupportedA Wedgewood poll showed Francesca Hong at 30% in the Wisconsin Democratic primary for governor, when legitimate polls had her much lower.World news | The Guardian: “On 16 August, an Urban Milwaukee journalist referred to Wedgewood as “a shady outfit” after one of its polls regarding the Wisconsin Democratic primary for governor showed Francesca Hong at 30% “at a time when legitimate polls had her with far less of the vote”.”

Correction

21 October 2026An earlier version of this story misspelled Francesca Hong's name as Francesco Hong.