Median Strategies said its Wisconsin governor and Los Angeles mayoral polls were fabricated and part of a short-term “social experiment,” then withdrew all releases, deleted social posts and saw its website go offline.
In Wisconsin, the fake survey showing Francesca Hong ahead by 23 points appears to have gone nowhere: no major news outlets reported it, no campaigns cited it, and major aggregators did not include it.
That limited spread may reflect how closely the bogus Wisconsin numbers matched legitimate polling, which also showed Hong near 40% but missed undecided voters breaking late to David Crowley.
Los Angeles was different: Karen Bass’s campaign had promoted a fake Median poll showing her up 12 points before deleting the post, and her spokesperson called for any election influence effort to be investigated.
Analysts said the episode exposes how easily unverified polls can enter thinly covered races and potentially sway narratives or prediction markets, even if this Wisconsin attempt largely failed.