The state Canvassing Board is encouraging the U.S. Senate campaigns to voluntarily whittle down the pile of
ballots they are challenging in the recount.  The tit-for-tat challenging has escalated by the day, including some challenges where voter intent is obvious and no other ballot deficiencies are apparent.  At the latest count, the two campaigns are challenging about 3,600 ballots.
 
Also Wednesday, the board denied a request by Democrat Al Franken's campaign to reconsider absentee ballots it claims were wrongly excluded from the initial vote count.  The board's unanimous voice vote followed a discussion where some members expressed frustration over the possibility that some ballots were disqualified improperly. But they acknowledged the matter fell outside the board's duties.

Franken entered the recount trailing Republican Senator Norm Coleman by 215 votes out of 2.9 million ballots that have been recounted.