Research 2000 was a U.S.

opinion poll An opinion poll, often simply referred to as a survey or a poll (although strictly a poll is an actual election) is a human research survey of public opinion from a particular sample. Opinion polls are usually designed to represent the opinion ...

ing and

marketing research Marketing research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of qualitative and quantitative data about issues relating to marketing products and services. The goal is to identify and assess how changing elements of the marketing mix i ...

company based in Olney, Maryland. It began doing research on upcoming elections in 1999 after its President, Del Ali, moved on from Mason-Dixon Political Media Research. Research 2000 clients included

KCCI-TV KCCI (channel 8) is a television station in Des Moines, Iowa, United States, affiliated with CBS. Owned by Hearst Television, the station maintains studios on Ninth Street in downtown Des Moines and a transmitter in Alleman. History KCCI start ...

Des Moines, Iowa Des Moines () is the capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Iowa. It is also the county seat of Polk County. A small part of the city extends into Warren County. It was incorporated on September 22, 1851, as Fort Des Moine ...

;, WCAX-TV in

Burlington, Vermont Burlington is the most populous city in the U.S. state of Vermont and the seat of Chittenden County. It is located south of the Canada–United States border and south of Montreal. As of the 2020 U.S. census, the population was 44,743. It ...

;

WISC-TV WISC-TV (channel 3) is a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, United States, affiliated with CBS and MyNetworkTV. It is the flagship television property of locally based Morgan Murphy Media, which has owned the station since its inception ...

Madison, Wisconsin Madison is the county seat of Dane County and the capital city of the U.S. state of Wisconsin. As of the 2020 census the population was 269,840, making it the second-largest city in Wisconsin by population, after Milwaukee, and the 80th ...

; WKYT-TV in

Lexington, Kentucky Lexington is a city in Kentucky, United States that is the county seat of Fayette County. By population, it is the second-largest city in Kentucky and 57th-largest city in the United States. By land area, it is the country's 28th-largest ...

;

Lee Enterprises Lee Enterprises, Inc. is a publicly traded American media company. It publishes 77 daily newspapers in 26 states, and more than 350 weekly, classified, and specialty publications. Lee Enterprises was founded in 1890 by Alfred Wilson Lee and is b ...

, the ''

Concord Monitor The ''Concord Monitor'' is the daily newspaper for Concord, the state capital of New Hampshire. It also covers surrounding towns in Merrimack County, most of Belknap County, as well as portions of Grafton, Rockingham and Hillsborough counties ...

'', ''

The Florida Times-Union ''The Florida Times-Union'' is a daily newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida, United States. Widely known as the oldest newspaper in the state, it began publication as the ''Florida Union'' in 1864. Its current incarnation started in 1883, when th ...

'', WSBT-TV/WISH-TV/WANE-TV in Indiana, the ''St. Louis Post-Dispatch'', the ''Bergen Record'', the ''Reno Gazette-Journal'', and the political blog

Daily Kos Daily Kos ( ) is a group blog and internet forum focused on the U.S. Democratic Party and liberal American politics. The site includes glossaries and other content. It is sometimes considered an example of " netroots" activism. Daily Kos was ...

Daily Kos lawsuit

During the 2008 U.S. elections, Research 2000 was contracted by the Democratic-leaning blog

to conduct

nonpartisan Nonpartisanism is a lack of affiliation with, and a lack of bias towards, a political party. While an Oxford English Dictionary definition of ''partisan'' includes adherents of a party, cause, person, etc., in most cases, nonpartisan refers sp ...

polling of various races, including presidential, senate and gubernatorial races. This partnership was slated to continue into the 2010 U.S. elections. However, Daily Kos terminated the relationship in early June 2010 after

FiveThirtyEight ''FiveThirtyEight'', sometimes rendered as ''538'', is an American website that focuses on opinion poll analysis, politics, economics, and sports blogging in the United States. The website, which takes its name from the number of electors in th ...

's pollster rankings showed Research 2000 had underperformed compared to other pollsters. In June 2010, three independent amateur statisticians ( Mark Grebner, Michael Weissman, and Jonathan Weissman) began investigating Research 2000's numbers and suspected that they had been fabricated. They were concerned enough to contact Daily Kos founder

Markos Moulitsas Markos Moulitsas Zúniga (; born September 11, 1971), often known by his username and former military nickname "Kos" ( ), is an American blogger who is the founder and publisher of Daily Kos, a blog focusing on liberal and Democratic Party p ...

with their suspicions. On June 29, Daily Kos released the findings of that investigation, which concluded Research 2000's data showed extreme statistical anomalies inconsistent with random polling. In a statement of his own accompanying the results, Moulitsas renounced all of the work Research 2000 had done for Daily Kos and also announced that Daily Kos intended to sue the polling firm for fraud. Daily Kos lawyer Adam Bonin claimed Research 2000 "handed us fiction and told us it was fact." The suit was filed on June 30, 2010 in the U.S. District Court, Northern District of California. On July 8, 2010, Research 2000 redirected its business website to the Wikipedia entry for

s. Del Ali said he did so because "hackers have polluted the site". On November 30, 2010, an agreement to a settlement began as lawyers for the Plaintiff filed a status report indicating that both parties were in "agreement as to the contours of a proper settlement but are still in the process of determining whether the execution of the proposed terms is feasible." In May 2011, ''

The Huffington Post ''HuffPost'' (formerly ''The Huffington Post'' until 2017 and sometimes abbreviated ''HuffPo'') is an American progressive news website, with localized and international editions. The site offers news, satire, blogs, and original content, and ...

'' reported that the lawsuit had been settled with Research 2000 pollster Del Ali making payments to Daily Kos. In July 2012, however, a default judgement of over US$350,000 was entered against the defendant.''Kos Media LLC et al v. Research 2000 et al'

Access date: 24 August 2017.

References

{{Reflist, 2 Public opinion research companies in the United States 1999 establishments in Maryland Defunct companies based in Maryland Companies based in Montgomery County, Maryland 2010s disestablishments in Maryland Fraud in the United States Defunct marketing companies of the United States