The change was notable because Coleman led Franken in election night returns and also held a 188-vote lead before the board took up challenged ballots. But its significance was limited, with the possibility the lead could change again before the long recount ends.
The board had several hundred remaining challenges to resolve, with a goal of doing so by Friday. Both Coleman and Franken are also waiting to see how much they gain from some 5,000 challenges that they withdrew, and the board won't allocate those until Monday.
The outcome of the recount also depends on an estimated 1,600 absentee ballots that were improperly rejected. The state Supreme Court ruled Thursday that those ballots must be counted, and set a Dec. 31 deadline for counties to work with the candidates to identify and count them.
The high court ruling virtually guaranteed that the recount would sprawl into the new year. With Congress set to convene Jan.
6, Gov. Tim Pawlenty said his staff was researching the possibility of a temporary appointment.
But Pawlenty said it was unlikely he would do so because he expected the recount would be resolved by then.
The ballot that put Franken in the lead came from Rochester, where a voter's mark for Franken filled not just his oval but a good chunk of territory next to it. A challenge from the Coleman campaign was rejected.
Before the five-member canvassing board began reviewing challenges Friday, it rejected a request from the Coleman campaign to disqualify hundreds of ballots that the campaign argued were duplicates and had been counted twice.
G. Barry Anderson, a Supreme Court justice serving on the board, said the issue was not the board's to decide.
"While I think there is a serious issue here, the location, extent and remedy lie elsewhere," Anderson said.
