After another day of recounting ballots, the margin between Franken and Coleman gets even tighter

After three days of recounting ballots in Minnesota, Al Franken has closed the gap even further. After the initial canvass, Norm Coleman was up by 215 votes.

Based on my math, using the "official" Minnesota Secretary of State's numbers, Al Franken has picked now picked up 100 votes since the recount started. That would drop Coleman's lead to 115 votes, with 60.86% of ballots recounted. These are votes, which were reported to the Secretary of State's office by 8:00 PM Central time last night.

The Star-Tribune, which has its own system of tracking the recount, has the Coleman lead at 120 votes.

This is going to come down to the challenged ballots, which will be reviewed in mid-December by a five-member panel. According to the Sec. of State site, the Coleman campaign has challenged 747 ballots. Franken has challenged 778.

It's just amazing how close this race is. Not that I think Joe Lieberman has any influence on anyone except the Senate Democrats, but one wonders if any votes shifted after Lieberman strongly defended Coleman's record on Iraq-related investigations in mid-October. Harry Reid might have this 59th vote sown up absent Lieberman's back-stabbing of the Democratic candidate. Just a thought.