MN-Sen: Franken within 140 votes

With 48% of the recount in Minnesota's Senate race complete, Democrat Al Franken has narrowed Republican Norm Coleman's lead from 215 votes to 140.

The Minnesota Star-Tribune has an excellent page keeping track of the recount results as they come in.

It certainly appears that a good number of the ballots remaining to be counted again are in Franken strongholds; Hennepin County is less than half in, St. Louis County has counted less than 40% of ballots, and Ramsey  County has recounted 30% of ballots.

Meanwhile, several counties haven't even started the recounts yet. And both campaigns have challenged over 400 ballots, a phenomenon noticeable in Ramsey County:

A rash of challenges has marked today's recount action in Ramsey County, with observers from both campaigns questioning voters' intent far more widely than they did the first two days. There were only 10 challenges Wednesday and Thursday, thanks largely to post-recount mediation sessions both afternoons during which county Elections Manager Joe Mansky and attorneys and volunteers from both campaigns sat down and whittled the challenges down when the voters' intent was clear.

"The strike zone seems to have been lowered," Mike Roman, a Coleman floor captain, said today.

Exciting.

With a race this close, we still have no real idea who's going to win the election. There's a fairly good chance that the recount could put this within 50 votes for either candidate.

On the web:
Al Franken for U.S. Senate
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