Fake (or just very poorly done) political polls tend to be more of an issue during election time, but they are a problem all the time. Politicians even quote them to support whatever policies they are pushing, but just because a politician mentions a poll doesn’t make it a legitimate poll (and politicians really should be more careful since they generally have a staff that can help them ferret out if a poll is any good–at least if they are above the local level).

Here’s a helpful article from poll experts FiveThirtyEight.com about How to Avoid Falling for a Fake Poll.

I also highly recommend their politics podcast, linked here.