If the poll is a “registered voter” poll, then turnout doesn’t factor into the result. “Likely voter” polls do that.
Secondly, why would a polling company “fake” results? There are too many of them and if they produce misleading results, there’s always another one waiting in the wings to take their place. Apparently, the people who believe in polling conspiracies haven’t heard about capitalism.
Because of who commissions them and gives them their parameters.
The polling orgs only need to produce a good final poll, because that is all that is used when measuring final polling accuracy. Nobody outside of right-wing blogs ever questions why three weeks before an election, Zogby or CBS has John Kerry up 6-8 points, and then a tie in their last poll right before the election.
Before the final week, organizations have carte blanche to twist and manipulate numbers without consequence. That's why CBS can produce polls with as little as 26% GOP (Do a FR search) to show “momentum” for a particular candidate.
News orgs use polls to shape public opinion until the final week, then they have to save face. That's why no TV or Newspaper commissioned poll EVER shows the Democrat behind, except after GOP Conventions and in the final week.
Remember how Mondale was supposedly leading until the final week? Give me a break!