Minnesota Recount Update

But not quite. Officials continued to search for 133 Minneapolis ballots that apparently are missing. And until those ballots are found or judged impossible to locate, the recount won't be over, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said Friday.

By mid-afternoon, Minneapolis officials had turned their elections warehouse inside out but failed to find the envelope containing the ballots.

If it exists and is found, the envelope might boost Franken's count by another 30 or so. The big focus is about 5,000 challenged ballots. Coleman is challenging 3,375 Franken is challenging 3,280. If all challenges are rejected, the margin narrows by 95 votes to 98 or so lead by Coleman. Egad! that's close. You can see why those 133 votes are important.

At this point most analysts are agreeing that Coleman is favored to come out on top and since Chambliss' victory has put the filibuster line out of reach, there is no reason for the Democratic senate to step in and spend political capital on Franken. That's my call too, To win, Franken will need an edge in the challenges, find some more missing votes and get some significant help from previously rejected ballots that, if counted will be litigated from here to January. That's a tough road and a lot of things that need to line up perfectly.