Minnesota ? Democrat Al Franken won a pair of victories Friday before the state board overseeing the Senate recount, including a decision that as many as 1,500 incorrectly rejected absentee ballots should be included.

The board also opted to recommend use of election night results in a Franken-leaning Minneapolis precinct where 133 ballots went missing, a decision that could have cost him 46 votes if it had gone the other way.

Franken had fought especially hard to include the absentees as he tries to overtake Republican Sen. Norm Coleman in the drawn-out recount.

Coleman’s campaign lawyers said they would go to court over the absentee ballot ruling.

With all precincts recounted, Coleman has a 188-vote edge over Franken — down slightly from his 215-vote lead entering the recount.

But there’s a long way to go. That margin doesn’t include the absentees. Nor does it include any of the 6,655 ballot challenges the two campaigns filed during the recount.