Al Franken’s campaign claims it now holds a 22-vote lead in the U.S. Senate race with just 138,000 votes left to be recounted. This figure contrasts with other tabulations, based on numbers from the Minnesota Secretary of State’s Office, that show Coleman maintaining a 303-vote lead.

The Franken numbers differ in a couple of respects from the SOS data. Most importantly the Democratic camp’s vote tally relies on the call made by local election officials in determining which candidate an individual intended to support. By contrast the other tallies don’t take into consideration the roughly 6,000 ballots that have been challenged by both campaigns. In addition, the Franken campaign’s figures include recount data that came in after the SOS’s 8 p.m. daily deadline for posting information.

Marc Elias, the Franken campaign’s lead recount attorney, stated at a press conference today that he believes an overwhelming majority of the challenges will ultimately be ruled to be without merit. “Thus when we set out internally to decide how we track the results thus far, we assume that all of the challenges, on both sides, will be overruled by the canvassing board,” he noted, “and that the judgment of the neutral, non-partisan election official at the counting table will be upheld.”

Elias also announced that the Franken campaign intends to rescind 633 challenges that it has determined are without merit. Unless the Coleman campaigns takes similar action, this means that Coleman’s lead as tabulated using the SOS figures will likely grow when the new figures are released this evening. As of last night the Republican’s campaign had challenged 183 more ballots than its Democratic counterpart.

The final four counties — Winona, Rock, Redwood and Wright — began their recounts today. The entire process is expected to conclude by Friday.