Did Jill Stein's vote total jeopardize Kamala Harris' chances of winning in Virginia? No, that's not true: Harris did win in Virginia. The vote total showing Donald Trump in the lead in a social media post was earlier on Election Day, with just 52 percent of the ballots counted.
The claim appeared in a post (archived here) on X on November 5, 2024, with the caption, "We couldve secured Virginia if 20k woke twt warriors hadn't voted for Jill stein." The on-screen title of the post said:
Donald Trump leads Virginia
The AP hasn't called this race • 13 electoral votes
This is what the post looked like on X at the time of writing:
(Source: X screenshot taken on Wed Nov 6 17:32:28 2024 UTC)
The post shows Trump with a slim lead over Harris in the state's presidential race, with 52 percent of the vote counted in Virginia. However, when the vast majority of votes were counted, the Virginia Department of Elections website (archived here) shows Harris at 51.56 percent and Trump at 46.36 percent on November 6, 2024, indicating a clear victory for Harris:
(Source: Virginia Department of Elections screenshot taken on Wed Nov 6 18:29:30 2024 UTC)
Additionally, on election night, November 5, 2024, The Associated Press called the race in Virginia for Harris (archived here) at 11:42 p.m. EST, again showing that Stein's votes didn't keep Harris from winning the state.
Read more
Additional Lead Stories fact checks on claims related to the 2024 U.S. general election and other elections are here.
