Median Strategies, a polling organization, announced it has closed its operations after admitting it published a fabricated survey concerning the Los Angeles mayoral race. The company stated on its website that the project was a "short-term social experiment" designed to test how unverified information circulates within the political environment.
The announcement followed a report by the Los Angeles Times on Monday, which noted that the firm admitted the poll was bogus after the newspaper submitted multiple inquiries. Median Strategies stated that none of its previous releases should be considered genuine data and claimed that no individuals associated with the project received financial compensation.
The fabricated poll, released last week, claimed that Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass held a double-digit lead of nearly 12 percentage points over Councilmember Nithya Raman. The survey purported to represent the views of 560 Los Angeles voters contacted between July 30 and August 5, citing a 4.2 percent margin of error. Mayor Bass originally shared the poll results on social media but later deleted the post.
For the average Los Angeles voter, the presence of fabricated data means that the information they use to gauge the viability or momentum of candidates may not be accurate. The campaign for Mayor Bass has called for an investigation into the matter, stating that attempts to influence elections through "bad faith" should be prosecuted. This situation highlights a specific vulnerability in how campaigns and news outlets verify data from new or unfamiliar organizations, as Median Strategies reportedly had fewer than two dozen social media followers and only began posting this month.
The closure of the firm sets a precedent regarding the rapid lifecycle of disinformation campaigns that label themselves as "social experiments." The knock-on effects could include increased scrutiny of future polls by news organizations and political campaigns to prevent the spread of unverified data. Moving forward, the mayoral race proceeds toward the November 3 general election, while the campaign’s request for legal investigation remains a pending development for local law enforcement or election officials to address.