Several candidates in the upcoming municipal elections have manipulated or forged polls in order to influence voters, according to Channel 2 news investigator Dafna Liel. Her report was confirmed by Avi Degani of the Geocartographia Institute.
Liel said she had found seven cases in which a mayoral or city council candidate had changed or faked the results of a poll conducted by one of the country's top polling companies. Candidates had lied about the date on which the poll was conducted, changed the results of the poll before it was published, or published only part of the poll, she said.
One such incident took place recently in Beit Shemesh where a poll was published showing incumbent mayor Danny Vaknin of Likud with a strong lead over rival candidate Shalom Lerner. The poll was sent to Members of Knesset and to the public, but it raised questions because most other polls had shown Lerner leading Vaknin by a sizable margin.
Channel 2 investigators called Professor Yitzchak Katz, CEO of the Maagar Mochot (“Brain Base”) polling company that conducted the poll. Katz admitted that the poll sent to the public was “inaccurate,” but refused to divulge details. The Likud party of Beit Shemesh has promised to clarify the matter by Sunday, he said.
Vaknin's aides told reporters that Katz had not contacted them regarding the poll in question, and he accused Channel 2 of taking facts out of context.
Avi Degani of Geocartographia confirmed that many polls had been distorted or completely falsified. Degani said he had seen many polls published that were said to have been conducted by Geocartographia when in fact the institute had not conducted the poll. Less than two weeks ago, a candidate in a certain city published a poll supposedly done recently by Geocartographia when the institute most recently conducted a poll in that city months earlier, he said.
When asked if he had complained to police, Degani said he had done so but had yet to see results. Police are overworked, and it is difficult to determine who is responsible for faking a particular poll, he said. Most cases have been closed, with police saying the investigation was called off due to “lack of public interest,” Degani added.
He criticized municipal elections officials for failing to complain to police about fake polls. Fake and distorted polls are very widespread and pose a danger to democracy, he said. He called on writers and editors who receive polls to confirm the results before publishing.
Liel closed her report by noting that polls can have a critical influence over election results. Voters will often decide not to vote for a certain party if polls show its chances of success are low, she said. Voters have also chosen to stay home when polls show one candidate winning by a large margin. In such cases, the polls have sometimes turned out to be mistaken.