Al Franken (Photo: Aaron Landry) and Norm Coleman (Photo: WDCpix.com)

Two days into Minnesota’s statewide election recount, Al Franken and U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman are challenging ballots at a pace that could end up sending more than 1,700 disputed votes to the state’s Canvassing Board to sort out. Each campaign claims the other’s challenges are frivolous, but frivolous or not, they are both making them at a rate that’s increasing rather than slacking off, as some said would happen. The challenged-ballot count remains neck-and-neck: Coleman’s crowd has challenged 374 so far, Franken’s 360.

As the number of challenged ballots grows — it’s at 734 combined as of today, with 42.33 percent of ballots cast Nov. 4 now recounted — the margin between the rival candidates shrinks. Figures from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s office, which is posting updates every night at 8 p.m., now indicate that Coleman’s lead over Franken has shrunk again and now stands at 129. It’s only a snapshot in a process that hasn’t yet reached the halfway mark, but it’s a snapshot in which the vaunted Coleman “victory” appears to be fading fast.

The picture that’s emerging is of a recounted total that remains a near-tie, with the election hanging on the judgment of the five state Canvassing Board members’ evaluation of the growing stack of challenged ballots.

Tonight’s totals, which don’t include the 734 challenged ballots, have Norm Coleman at 534,687 votes (212 fewer votes than the original count indicated from the same ballots) and Al Franken with 494,930 votes (126 fewer than on the first count of the same ballots). Subtracting those votes lost in the course of the recount so far brings the pre-recount gap of 215 down to a 129 margin that currently favors Coleman.
Note: The Star Tribune has slightly different numbers based on the secretary of state’s figures as well as on reports the Strib gathers from individual counties or recount sites after 8 p.m. With 46 percent of ballots recounted statewide, the Strib puts the gap between Franken and Coleman at 136, with greater numbers of challenged ballots for each: Coleman, 409; Franken, 414.