While we wait for the Minnesota State Canvassing Board to sift through the remaining ballot challenges, here, courtesy of the UpTake, are some frequently-asked questions (and their answers) concerning this stage of the recount of the Senate race between incumbent Republican Norm Coleman and his Democratic challenger Al Franken:

Who is really ahead?
No one.  There are too many unanswered questions on outstanding issues to determine a real margin in any objective sense – currently.  When this changes we will let you know.

Isn’t Franken ahead now?
Yes by triple digits.  However this is an unofficial, provisional results. Just like early returns on election night.

How long will review of challenged ballots last?
Each day they review the ballots from 9am to 530pm CST.  On Friday, they will go as late as necessary to finish all challenged ballots.

 
How many ballots did each campaign end up challenging?
Franken challenged approximately 440, Coleman around 1000.

Why approximately?
Both campaigns have been adding ballots and withdrawing others throughout the week.  These changes have mostly cancelled each other out.

They can do that?
Apparently.

Are the totals you post in your liveblog the daily total or ongoing?
Our unofficial numbers are inclusive of all days of the review.

Why does Secretary of State Mark Richie hate (insert candidate name here)?
As a matter of protocol, the first motion Richie introduces is to throw the challenge out and to affirm the decision the election judge made originally on the challenged ballot.  Always!  Richie will often vote against his own first motion if necessary – it’s just a matter of protocol.

What is the deal with incident reports and the blue or yellow folder?

Incident report challenges are based on things not having to do with the actual marks on the ballot but re: another issue (missing a duplicate or original ballot, chain of custody issues etc). 

These will be dealt with at the end of work Friday.

When will the Supreme Court rule on what to do with the improperly rejected ballots?

Both campaigns need to meet with all the county level election officials and AGREE on which ballots to open, challenge and count.

Norm’s currently fixated on a little over one hundred of what he calls "duplicate ballots", and his hordes of lawyers have run off to the state Supreme Court yet again, hoping to get the ballots tossed from the count.   Considering Norm’s batting average with legal matters in the recount, I don’t think things will break his way here, either.

To watch the recount’s end game, go to the UpTake’s front page or visit the StarTribune recount site; both places feature video footage, often live.   Pickups after 1220 challenged ballots reviewed, as of 1:25 pm Central Time today: Franken +726, Coleman +259, Other (mostly Dean Barkley, probably) +235.   (To give you an idea of just how bogus most ballot challenges were, an UpTake viewer has the following breakdown of challenged-ballot outcomes, which he posted on the UpTake’s Twitter site at 1:33 pm Central Time:  " [Comment From Jeff] 
798 Coleman Challenges resolved (644 votes to Franken) = 19.2982 % success rate for Coleman challenges 418 Franken Challenges resolved (231 votes to Coleman) = 44.7368 % success rate for Franken challenges".  In other words, fewer than one in five of Coleman’s challenges succeeded, whereas nearly half of Franken’s did.)

Update from the UpTake Twitter at 1:48 pm  "Jennifer:  Franken by 278."