American Thinker

by Clarice Feldman

    In a series of disclosures, four polling outfits have recently been exposed as utter frauds, fabricating data and sharing fraudulent reports. These fake polls have appeared in media election surveys, with some included in well-known polling aggregators. Some scamsters appear to have profited from things like crowdfunding, some may have been paid by interested parties -- who knows  -- but every one of them is guilty of interfering with elections. The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) appears to be about to investigate these scamsters and the media which, blindly or not, crookedly shared these lies. It’s my own view that if thieves can figure out how to profit from cheating, they will, and I think it’s time for a close law enforcement examination of election prediction markets and any connection with political polling outfits.

The Scamsters Unveiled

    In August and this month, four different polling outfits were exposed for fabricating data.

    In August, Median Strategies admitted inventing polls on the Los Angeles mayoral contest and the election races in Nevada and Wisconsin as a “social experiment”.

    That same month, an outfit called Public Sentiment admitted having altered data in the Florida GOP primary polls in order to favor a client.

    SoCal was also unmasked this month, after people started poking around into its personnel ties to Wedgewood .

    Jeff Childers reviews SoCal’s dance of the seven veils:

    On Thursday, polling aggregator FiftyPlusOne -- the same outfit that torpedoed Wedgewood Polls earlier this week -- announced it had received an anonymous tip raising questions about another sketchy polling provider -- this one called SoCal Strategies. After FiftyPlusOne’s suspicions were aroused, it emailed SoCal a few basic questions.

    SoCal went dark.

    Twenty-four hours later, SoCal’s website was taken down, its X account closed, and its email accounts went offline. Bye, suckers!

    When FiftyPlusOne, trying to figure out how to contact the owner, pulled up SoCal’s Florida business registration, the investigation found that SoCal had told the State of Florida it was out of business in May -- even though it kept producing polls through October. They also noticed a bizarre note on SoCal’s Division of Corporations entry, which sounded less like a business status and more like a hostage note:

    Normally, when business owners tell the State of Florida they are closing a company, one of the prompts is “describe the occurrence that resulted in the limited liability company’s dissolution.” Whoever closed SoCal wrote (in all caps), “ITS TIME FOR THIS TO END AND FOR US TO MOVE ON. I JUST WANT TO PUT THIS ALL BEHIND.”

    Yikes.

    But even though it dissolved itself in May, SoCal mysteriously kept submitting polls to newspapers and aggregators -- well past “TIME TO END.” Now, suddenly, it is just as mysteriously gone, flown by night. As regular readers will recall, this makes two polling implosions in one week, and three in the last two months.

    The traditional media have posted this nonsense clearly without any vetting and should now be red-faced. Not only has the polling industry taken a massive blow, but so have the outlets that promoted this garbage.

    The NYT just removed 15 fake election surveys that it had included in its tracking surveys. USA Today, which, like the rest of the media pack, touted polling garbage, claims there’s a silver lining in this black mark against the polling industry -- that now the media will be more careful. Some “silver lining.”

Is the Cavalry On its Way?

    I’d rather take solace in the belief that the FCC is about to get involved in this large and growing polling scam, according to FCC chairman Brendan Carr, than I would in the notion that the media will now be inspired on its own to play it straight:

    During this election season, there has been a significant surge in entirely Fake Polls and Suppression Polls designed to do nothing more than interfere with the regular functioning of the electoral process and alter the normal patterns of voter turnout and enthusiasm. Many journalists and broadcasters have been amplifying or airing these Polls without regard to basic journalistic ethics and without informing the public that those Polls lack a scientific, accurate, or even real basis. The FCC takes these issues seriously. Broadcasters are prohibited by the terms of their federal licenses from engaging in News Distortion or promoting Broadcast Hoaxes. It is important that broadcasters comply with their public interest obligations. After all, the country benefits greatly when Americans can trust and rely on the media to report the news fairly and accurately. Broadcasters are advised to avoid engaging in News Distortions or running Broadcast Hoaxes by airing Polls that would violate their regulatory obligations. If broadcasters believe they should provide their viewers with additional context and information about Polls they have covered, they can now take those actions consistent with FCC regulations.

Why stop there, though?

    Per Grok, there has been over “$1.4 billion in trading volume so far on 2026 U.S. midterm-related markets (as of late October 2026) according to a CNN analysis published 23, 2026. Kalshi (the largest such regulated platform) had a volume of over $1.1 billion, and Polymarket more than $340 million.

    Call me an unredeemed cynic if you will, but when there is so much money riding on the election prediction market, I think people are likely scamming the data for a more lucrative reason than just influencing elections.