Unofficially, DFLer Al Franken has a 46-vote edge over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman, out of about 2.9 million ballots cast. When the recount began, Coleman led by 215 votes.
TODAY'S MAJOR ISSUES:
Mistakenly rejected absentee ballots: The Supreme Court has ordered election officials, together with the two campaigns, to identify and count absentee ballots that all agree were wrongly rejected. Last week, local election officials submitted 1,346 ballots that they believe were improperly rejected. The campaigns began the process of seeking agreement on a final list Monday; that effort continues today and the rest of this week at regional meetings around the state.
Withdrawn ballot challenges: The campaigns have withdrawn thousands of ballot challenges, but the votes on those ballots have not yet been officially added to the results. A draft report of how the votes would be allocated was prepared, but the campaigns say it contains some errors. The Canvassing Board meets this morning to allocate the votes. Franken's unofficial 46-vote advantage is based on the draft report.
KEY DATES
Today: Canvassing Board takes up allocation of votes from withdrawn ballot challenges while campaigns and local officials negotiate over which absentee ballots were improperly rejected.
Friday: Deadline for local election officials to send to the state all absentee ballots that they and the two campaigns agree were mistakenly rejected.
Sunday, Jan. 4: Deadline for Secretary of State's office to count the absentee ballots and report results.
Jan. 5: Canvassing Board meets.
Jan. 6: U.S. Senate convenes in Washington, D.C. Canvassing Board will meet again in St. Paul, if necessary.
