The polling aggregator-turned-watchdog that helped expose fabricated surveys from Wedgewood Polls has shifted its attention to another firm, which has since disappeared from the internet.
FiftyPlusOne announced it is dropping surveys from SoCal Strategies after raising questions about the firm’s work and seeking additional information about its polling.
“A shady pollster from sunny California just disappeared from the internet, a few days after FiftyPlusOne asked to verify its data,” the group wrote Thursday in a Substack post.
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This episode comes less than two weeks before the midterms and has intensified concerns about fabricated polling at a time when many in the industry are already grappling with how to accurately gauge an electorate that has become harder to measure.
FiftyPlusOne said it will no longer collect SoCal Strategies surveys and is removing two disputed polls conducted in May from its database. The aggregator said it has not seen credible evidence that the firm’s earlier polls were fabricated and will continue to list most surveys conducted before May.
The SoCal polls that FiftyPlusOne took down were a May Texas GOP primary runoff poll of 700 likely voters showing Attorney General Ken Paxton leading Sen. John Cornyn 57% to 35%, and a May Kentucky 4th Congressional District Republican primary poll of 450 likely voters showing Ed Gallrein leading Rep. Thomas Massie, 49% to 42%.
The move came after SoCal Strategies’ website, Substack page and X account went offline Thursday, according to The Washington Post.
FiftyPlusOne said it spoke Tuesday with a person affiliated with SoCal Strategies and was promised a statement and additional information. As of Thursday, however, the aggregator said it was still waiting.
It ultimately removed the firm’s polls, citing what it described as a loss of trust in SoCal’s purported leader, suspected ties to Wedgewood Polls and a failure to respond to repeated requests for information.
The scrutiny comes as the polling industry grapples with fallout from the Wedgewood Polls scandal.
Wedgewood, a self-described polling firm, acknowledged Tuesday that it had published fabricated polling on midterm election races. The group said the fake surveys were part of an “experiment” to test whether media outlets and poll aggregators would incorporate its data. Its surveys tended to benefit Democrats.
The admission came shortly after FiftyPlusOne sought comment from Wedgewood about an investigation into its work. According to FiftyPlusOne, Wedgewood also contacted the group directly on social media just before publishing its explanation, delivering a blunt message: “F*** you.”
Before it was exposed, Wedgewood polls had been included in databases maintained by FiftyPlusOne, The New York Times and other polling aggregators.
Mary Radcliffe of FiftyPlusOne acknowledged to Axios that Wedgewood managed to evade the safeguards used by several aggregators, including her own.
She also expressed skepticism about Wedgewood’s explanation for the fabricated data.
“I just think they were trying to get ahead of the bad press that they knew was coming their way,” she said.
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