Horror as another suspect polling firm vanishes amid scrutiny: 'Major scandal'

The election forecasting community was rattled this week by reporting that Wedgewood Polls, a recent upstart firm, had been fabricating most or all of its data. Now another polling firm is in experts' crosshairs — but they seem to have deleted their entire internet presence before anything could be proven.FiftyPlusOne, a polling analysis site, announced in a blog post on Thursday it is ending its use of SoCal Strategies’ surveys after the pollster’s web presence disappeared a few days after FiftyPlusOne asked to check its data.FiftyPlusOne interviewed a person calling himself Wilson Rochford, the firm’s head pollster, on October 20. He promised to send raw data by Friday to substantiate disputed surveys, and said Jack Sims, who had been tied to Wedgewood, “didn’t actually have a big role” in polling. FiftyPlusOne says it hasn’t heard back since, and that the Washington Post reported the firm’s website and X account were...