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A recent college graduate, Rahil Prakash, has been identified as the creator of a fabricated poll about the Los Angeles mayoral election. The fake survey, attributed to Median Strategies, showed incumbent Mayor Karen Bass leading challenger Nithya Raman by nearly 12 percentage points. However, The Times exposed the poll as a sham after investigations by The Guardian linked it to Prakash's domain registration data. Prakash confirmed the report but declined further interviews. Median Strategies described the poll as a short-term social experiment to study how unverified polling information spreads through political discourse. The fake poll was later shared on social media by Mayor Bass, raising questions about its impact. Experts warn that if the poll had financial motives, it could face legal consequences. Prakash admitted being inspired by discrepancies in real-world election polls, such as the Michigan Senate primary where initial predictions diverged from actual results. He also created similar fake data for Nevada and Wisconsin elections. The incident highlights concerns about misinformation in political campaigns and the potential influence of unverified polling on public perception.