Sweet

Things are looking good in Minnesota:

Al Franken's chances of winning the Minnesota recount may have just gone up astronomically.

The state canvassing board just voted unanimously that absentee ballots that were initially rejected because of clerical errors -- and the current estimate from the hearing is that there could be nearly 1,600 of them, based on some extrapolation -- should be counted, probably the single biggest issue that the Franken campaign has been hammering ever since this recount began, and which really seemed up in the air going into this hearing. * * *

The canvasing board voted earlier to compensate for the loss of 133 ballots that went missing in Minneapolis by going back to the recorded Election Night vote totals for the precinct in question. A decision the other way would have cost Franken a net 46 votes.