The main story so far in Minnesota’s statewide election recount — besides incumbent Republican U.S. Sen. Norm Coleman’s continuing slim lead over Democratic challenger Al Franken and the role of wrongly rejected absentee ballots — has been how the unexpectedly large numbers of ballot challenges from both campaigns have affected the recount’s running vote tally. By questioning election officials on 27 of every 10,000 ballots cast for either man, the campaigns have temporarily removed nearly 6,000 votes from the official recount totals, leaving Coleman in command (for the moment) of a 344-vote advantage.

But take one statistic from Monday’s recount action — Coleman challenged 35 more ballots than did Franken — and extrapolate it across eight days of a recount that’s now nine-tenths done, and you can show, on paper at least, how Coleman’s ballot-challenge lead could account for his lead in the running tally of overall votes.

The shelf life of such computations, however — like the shelf life of the candidates’ ballot challenges on which they’re based — is limited. There’s a Dec. 5 deadline for counties to complete their recount responsibilities and a Dec. 16 date for the State Canvassing Board to begin aggregating the counties’ handiwork, including the critical task of sorting out the challenged ballots.

In the meantime, the canvassing board may also decide what if anything it will do about examining an estimated 12,000 rejected absentee ballots for legitimate votes that should have been counted.

Most counties are already done with their parts in the state’s recount, but some have yet to start. On Tuesday only Hennepin, Ramsey and Dodge counties will be recounting, according to The Uptake, which closely tracks counties’ efforts. On Wednesday, Rock, Wright, Scott and Winona counties will begin their recounts.