This morning, Minnesota's State Canvassing Board unanimously denied the Franken campaign's request to include rejected absentee ballots in the recount. No wouldn't want to count valid votes, that would be crazy.

But don't worry...

During the discussion, the board members stressed that they weren't rejecting the merits of the arguments made by Franken's attorneys. They also made it clear they expect the issue to be litigated separately from the recount procedure.

Is this supposed to make those absentee voters whose ballots were rejected because an election worker forgot to sign it feel better?

In the meantime, there's also growing concern about the escalating numbers of vote challenges in the recount.

Also this morning, Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, who chairs the Canvassing Board, said that attorneys from each campaign have said they can find a way to trim the pile of ballots being challenged in counties across the state. Combined, the two sides are so far contesting more than 3,600 ballots.

As of this posting, with 88% of precincts recounted, Coleman's challenges are up to 1,897 while Franken has challenged 1,806 votes. While the recount totals have Franken having lost 28 votes, an analysis by the Minneapolis Star Tribune reveals that Franken has actually gained 46 votes "that are not tied to ballot challenges." But until the challenges are resolved, there's really no way to know how close Franken actually is to winning this thing.