While the counting of challenged ballots continues and there is still the issue of the inappropriately uncounted absentee ballots to be resolved by the Minnesota Supreme Court, it is VERY encouraging to see that the current Minneapolis Star-Tribune estimate for the result of the challenged ballots projects Franken to come out of the resolved challenges with a 171 vote lead. This is a big enough lead that the US Senate would probably seat Franken, pending the outcome of the court challenges.
http://senaterecount.startribune.com...
RACE AT A GLANCE - Close
Resolved challenges Current vote totals
Coleman Franken Other/no one Remaining Coleman Franken Margin
Current recount totals 95 19 38 6,742 1,209,030 1,208,766 Coleman 264
Challenged by Coleman 3 06 00 3,088
Challenged by Franken 92 13 38 2,877
Ballot Challenge projection 2,897 3,256 413 0 1,211,832 1,212,003 Franken 171
The Tribune projects that of a total of 6,566 total challenged ballots, Franken will receive 3,256 votes, Coleman will receive 2,897 votes and Other/No One will receive 413 votes. This would give Franken a 359 vote lead in the recount and combined with Coleman's current pre-recount lead of 188 votes would produce a Franken lead of 171 votes.
So, while there are probably still many twists and turns to come in the recount, things are looking very good for Al Franken's chances of winning Minnesota's Senate seat right now.