Tallahassee, Florida — A political polling aggregator has permanently dropped a Florida pollster after determining that the firm altered how some respondents were counted in a Republican gubernatorial primary survey and failed to disclose that candidate James Fishback’s campaign funded the work.
FiftyPlusOne said Thursday it would no longer use polls from The Public Sentiment Institute, or TPSI, accusing the firm of “falsified data” that boosted Fishback’s standing. TPSI rejected the characterization but acknowledged both a disclosure failure and what it called a methodological error.
According to TPSI’s own review, the firm applied an “experimental layer” after its raw results did not match its expectations for the race. Respondents who selected Lt. Gov. Jay Collins but whose demographic profiles appeared closer to Fishback’s coalition were shifted toward Fishback, moving him into second place behind Byron Donalds.
TPSI said no raw responses were deleted or fabricated and that the experimental method has been discontinued. FiftyPlusOne nevertheless said the practice warranted a permanent ban.
The tracker also temporarily suspended Patriot Polling after finding evidence that it had conducted polling for Fishback without properly identifying the campaign as a sponsor.
The controversy follows a separate episode involving Median Strategies, which recently acknowledged publishing fabricated Los Angeles mayoral polling as a “social experiment.”
Donalds ultimately won Florida’s Republican gubernatorial primary Tuesday.
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