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Fake polling site Median Strategies slipped through four Democratic primaries undetected and altered campaign strategy in Wisconsin

8/27/2026

The polling aggregation stack has no provenance check at intake.

A site with a formatted layout and a plausible name can push survey results into the media pipeline before anyone verifies the sample or the organization behind the numbers.

Rahil Prakash, a 21-year-old college graduate, confirmed how far that gap extends when he built Median Strategies, a fictitious polling operation, and released fabricated results across four Democratic primaries.

In the Wisconsin governor's race, Prakash's fake poll showed Democratic Socialist candidate Hong leading by 20 points.