It’s sad, but this story is hardly new: polling in the Trump era has been laughably inaccurate. We don’t respond to pollsters, so gauging this climate is sometimes a shot in the dark. Exit polling is off. This cycle, especially, has been shambolic. During Wisconsin’s Democratic gubernatorial primary, Francesa Hong, a far-left candidate, was said to be damn near 20 points ahead. Well, the firm that dropped that poll later admitted they cooked the poll, saying it was a social experiment. They shut down those operations after that disclosure. Now another firm admits it posted fake polls. Wedgewood Polling dropped that update last night:
The polling industry needs major reform. Our statement below: https://t.co/Sj8JLYgply
— Wedgewood Polls (@WedgewoodPolls) October 20, 2026
Absolutely incredible… "Wedgewood Polls" just admitted they are a fake polling firm and made up their polls. Their fake polls have been posted in both the NYT and Nate Silver’s averages. https://t.co/ceZU2NdpK5
— Geiger Capital (@Geiger_Capital) October 21, 2026
Polling firm Wedgewood Polls admits to completely fabricating election polling for the 2026 midterms Senate Polls they previously released: Mississippi: 🔴 Hyde-Smith +4 Kansas: 🔵 Hamilton +1 Texas: 🔵 Talarico +3 Michigan: 🔵 El-Sayed +3 https://t.co/x1VDk1kq10
— OSZ (@OpenSourceZone) October 21, 2026
Frank Luntz admitted he got the 2016 polling wrong and that pollsters aren’t asking the right questions to gauge turnout. The New York Times’ Jeremy Peters admitted that in Michigan, the Detroit suburbs are chock full of lifelong Jewish Democrats who are voting Republican, and that the polls are oversampling Abdul El-Sayed’s overeducated base.
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