Franken down by only 221 votes in Minnesota Senate race.

Incumbent Senator Norm Coleman's lead has shrunk to 221 votes as the towns and cities report final numbers. From the Star-Tribune:

A tiny town in the Democratic stronghold of Minnesota's Iron Range emerged Friday as the latest battleground over the state's disputed U.S. Senate race.

Democrat Al Franken gained 100 votes there between election night and when results were officially tallied on Thursday.

Adding to the intrigue -- and suspicion in Sen. Norm Coleman's camp: The time stamp on the official tape printed out by a ballot machine in the precinct in question carried a date of Nov. 2, two days before the election.

Election officials in Mountain Iron, Minn., and St. Louis County said Friday they are confident the final vote totals were correct. They chalked up the time-stamp discrepancy to a voting machine whose clock may have been improperly set or been running low on batteries.

In the midst of the unresolved election -- the tightest U.S. Senate race in Minnesota history, with a recount in the offing -- the Mountain Iron confusion is the latest wrinkle. The difference between Coleman and Franken, which stood at 725 votes in Coleman's favor Wednesday morning, has changed several times since then as county officials have checked results, and was 221 by Friday evening.

David Brauer, who writes Braublog at MinnPost.com, talked to the folks in Mountain Iron. No surprise, but there's not the drama and "intrigue" the Coleman campaign would like to insinuate. Braublog also has a widget that's tracking the vote, too.

The Associated Press reports most of the "undervotes" are from areas of the state where Obama won. ("Undervotes" are on ballots where there is clear choice for president but apparently no vote recorded for the Senate race):

An Associated Press analysis of votes in the tight, still-to-be decided race for a U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota shows that most ballots lacking a recorded choice in the election were cast in counties won by Democrat Barack Obama.

The finding could have implications for Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken, who are headed for a recount separated by the thinnest of margins — a couple of hundred votes, or about 0.01 percent.

About 25,000 ballots statewide carried votes for president but not for the Senate race. Although some voters might have intentionally bypassed the race, others might have mismarked their ballot, or optical scanning machines might have misread them.

A recount due to begin Nov. 19 will use manual inspection to detect such ballots.

This one is far from over.