FACT CHECK: Does This Image Show A Line Of People Waiting To Vote In Virginia?
An image shared on Twitter purportedly shows a long line of people waiting to vote in Alexandria, Virginia, on the morning of Oct. 30.
This was the line in Alexandria this morning waiting to vote.
— Jonathan Gaffney 🇺🇸 (@JGaffneyUSN) October 30, 2021
Verdict: False
The picture was taken in Zhengzhou, China, in 2014.
Fact Check
The Oct. 30 tweet sharing the picture of the long, winding line has garnered over 2,700 retweets and over 13,200 likes so far. It alleges the photo depicts the “line in Alexandria this morning waiting to vote.” The last day for early voting in Virginia’s elections was Oct. 30, according to the Virginia Department of Elections website.
Over 1.1 million voters in Virginia cast early ballots ahead of Tuesday’s elections, the Associated Press reported. One of the offices Virginians are voting on is governor, which Democratic candidate Terry McAuliffe, Republican candidate Glenn Youngkin and Liberation candidate Princess Blanding are running for, according to the Virginia Department of Elections website.
While there were, according to WUSA9 and WTVR-TV, long lines of voters in parts of Virginia on the last day of early voting, the picture shared on Twitter doesn’t show one of them. (RELATED: Does This Photo Show Adam Sandler Holding A Sign About Voting In The 2020 Election?)
The photo, traced through a reverse image search, was taken by a stringer in the Chinese city of Zhengzhou back in February 2014. It depicts “junior college students” as they “line up outside a job fair,” according to its caption in an April 2014 Reuters article.
Business Insider also included the picture in a 2015 article, where the caption said, “Junior college students line up outside a job fair in 2014. Around 50,000 people attended this one job fair in Zhengzhou, Henan province.”
