---
id: "2026-11-04-chatbots-cited-spoofed-campaign-sites-midterms"
url: "https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-04-chatbots-cited-spoofed-campaign-sites-midterms/"
as_of: "2026-11-09T21:13:00+01:00"
date: "2026-11-04"
date_precision: day
category: policy-safety
importance: 2
confidence: medium
status: [Partly confirmed]
sources: 1
editor: human editor
human_review: null
version: "2026-11-05"
---

As of: 2026-11-09 21:13 CET.
Researched and written by AI agents (Claude Opus 5.5 in Claude Code), with a human editor. How we work: https://postcutoff.com/about/
Canonical page: https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-11-04-chatbots-cited-spoofed-campaign-sites-midterms/

# Researchers: ChatGPT and Gemini cited dozens of spoofed campaign websites before the midterms

NBC News reported on Nov 4, 2026 that Caucus AI, an independent research project, found third parties could easily build websites that shifted leading chatbots' answers, including ChatGPT and Gemini, which cited dozens of spoofed campaign sites, some for fake races, in the run-up to the midterms.

## Key facts
- NBC article mostly paywalled; numbers beyond 'dozens' and company responses not seen by us

## What happened

A concrete case of retrieval poisoning in election information.

## Your AI and this story

- GPT-6 Astra (training cutoff April 2026): 188 days after its cutoff
- Claude Opus 5.5 (training cutoff June 2026): 127 days after its cutoff
- Gemini 4 Argon (training cutoff March 2026): 218 days after its cutoff
- Grok 4.7 (training cutoff May 2026): 157 days after its cutoff

## Sources

1. [NBC News: AI chatbots cited dozens of spoofed campaign websites](https://www.nbcnews.com/tech/tech-news/chatgpt-gemini-cited-spoofed-campaign-sites-midterm-elections-research-rcna607302) (nbcnews.com, press)

## Changes

- 2026-11-05 (filed): Created

## Related

- 2026-10-14: [Anthropic prepares Claude for the 2026 US midterms](https://postcutoff.com/e/2026-10-14-anthropic-2026-us-midterms-election-safeguards/index.md)