Sen. Norm Coleman’s campaign argued this morning that the state canvassing board should reconsider decisions on at least 16 ballots that it believes were awarded to the wrong candidate in the U.S. Senate contest. The five-member panel agreed to examine the ballots in question, but ultimately decided that their initial determinations on the vote allocations would stand.

“I understand why these were challenged; these were very close calls,” acknowledged Minnesota Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson (pictured), a member of the canvassing board. “I saw nothing in any of those that gave me cause to change my vote.”

While this issue was resolved promptly, there are still numerous other kinks to be worked out before a final vote tally can be determined in the exceedingly close contest. Over the weekend, employees of the Secretary of State’s office sorted through roughly 6,600 ballots that had initially been challenged by the two campaigns, adding them to the tally for the appropriate candidate. Each campaign, however, believes that during this process some votes were either allocated to the wrong candidate or not counted at all. The Coleman campaign argues that at least 21 ballots were counted for the wrong candidate. Al Franken’s campaign, likewise, believes that at least six ballots were allocated in error, while an additional 36 were left out of the count entirely.

The canvassing board will meet again on December 30 to deal with any corrections to the tally that need to be made owing to such human errors. Presently Franken leads the incumbent by nearly 50 votes, according to most independent tallies.

“Obviously we’re a little disappointed with what we saw in there,” said Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak, following the board’s hearing. “We respectfully disagree with some of what the board did.” But Knaak expressed optimism that Coleman will ultimately prevail in the contest. “We see the number as much better from our point of view,” he said, but declined to provide any specifics. “Our internal count is something that we don’t share.”

There are two other sets of ballots that will play a factor in determining who is ultimately declared the victor in the contest. This afternoon the Minnesota Supreme Court will take up the issue of purportedly double-counted ballots. The Coleman campaign argues that in some instances both duplicate and original ballots were included in the tally, resulting in some ballots being allocated twice. It’s seeking to have the canvassing board enjoined from certifying the election results until the issue is resolved. The Franken campaign denies that any votes have been double-counted.

The other contentious issue is how to deal with absentee ballots that were wrongly rejected by local election officials. There are thought to be roughly 1,600 such ballots statewide. Last week the Minnesota Supreme Court ruled that both campaigns — in coordination with the Secretary of State’s office, the state canvassing board and local election officials — must come up with a process for deciding which absentee ballots were wrongly rejected by the end of the calendar year.

Apparently the various parties are close to reaching such an agreement. A proposed change to the Supreme Court’s order, designed to protect the privacy of voters, has been submitted to the court and a preliminary framework for sorting through the wrongfully rejected absentee ballots has been worked out. “That’s very good momentum for us in terms of getting this done,” said Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, a member of the canvassing board. But he declined to speculate when the five-member panel might ultimately certify a winner. “I have no way to predict the future or the activities of the state canvassing board.”