Criticism is growing after a polling operation widely seen as legitimate in the leadup to the midterms admitted its numbers were made up. Wedgewood Polls says it routinely posted fake data as part of an "experimental project" to show how a bogus polling firm could influence media narratives and political decision-making. Wedgewood made the public admission just as analytics outfit FiftyPlusOne prepared to publish an investigation saying its data was fabricated. The deception "was never intended to sway an election or permanently mislead the public," but rather to expose weaknesses in polling, insists Wedgewood. But the stunt had real-world implications, reports Politico, which notes that the fake surveys appeared in major poll aggregators, guided donor behavior, and were cited by candidates.
Michigan Democrat Mallory McMorrow, for example, says a Wedgewood poll showing her collapsing in a Senate primary dried up contributions and pushed her from the race: "It killed us," she wrote on X. Another person angry is polling guru Nate Silver. "I say go f--- yourselves," he said on a podcast, per Mediaite. "I hope you're put in jail." He wants an investigation, given that the company crowdfunded its polls. Polling aggregators, meanwhile, are coming under scrutiny for including Wedgewood results without verification. After Polling USA wrote, "My suspicions about Wedgewood were correct," Wedgewood responded: "You posted our polls multiple times. If you suspected it was fake, why did you post our results?" At this point, it remains murky just who was behind Wedgewood and what it was truly trying to achieve, notes Politico.
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