Franken camp says they're ahead 22 votes

By GottaLaff

Ohpleaseohpleaseohplease:

Al Franken's senate campaign says the Democratic candidate has pulled ahead of Republican incumbent Norm Coleman for the first time since the recount began.

The campaign's internal tally shows a Franken lead of 22 votes, campaign attorney Marc Elias told reporters on a conference call Wednesday. (Independent tallies by local newspapers still show Coleman holding the lead.)

Elias also said Franken's campaign would be withdrawing 600 challenges of ballots, conceding that the votes clearly were meant for Coleman. The two campaigns had challenged more than 6,000 votes between them, and Elias encouraged the Coleman camp to drop some of its ballot challenges. [...]

The Franken campaign's internal estimate is based on tallies from observers at recount locations and the assumption that a canvassing board will not reverse the votes on any challenged ballots. Coleman's campaign had challenged about 200 more ballots than Franken's, which Elias said depressed their numbers in other estimates. As of Wednesday afternoon, the Minneapolis Star Tribune was reporting that the margin was at 303. [...]

The Franken campaign believes it will net more votes that Coleman after the challenges are determined, but for now it's assuming the on-site judge made the right call.