Biden takes the lead in Pennsylvania, putting him in position to win the presidency

(Image credit: Drew Angerer/Getty Images)

Former Vice President Joe Biden pulled ahead of President Trump in Pennsylvania on Thursday morning. If Biden maintains his lead, he will win the state's 20 Electoral College votes, which would put him over the 270 needed to win the election.

Around 130,000 votes remain to be counted in Pennsylvania, with Biden holding a margin of around 5,500 as of 9 a.m. ET. The outstanding ballots in the state are expected to come from its Democratic strongholds. "Pennsylvania may not be particularly close in the end," observed FiveThirtyEight's Nate Silver. "There are still quite a few very blue mail-in ballots left to count, and most counties haven't counted provisional ballots, which are liable to be very blue. I might expect Biden to win by something like 3 points there in the end, perhaps pretty close to what polls showed."

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Jeva Lange was the executive editor at TheWeek.com. She formerly served as The Week's deputy editor and culture critic. She is also a contributor to Screen Slate, and her writing has appeared in The New York Daily News, The Awl, Vice, and Gothamist, among other publications. Jeva lives in New York City. Follow her on Twitter.