As the U.S. Senate recount approaches another crossroad today, it appears that DFLer Al Franken's recently attained lead over Republican Sen. Norm Coleman could narrow to double digits.

Today, the state Canvassing Board is scheduled to award votes from thousands of challenges that each candidate had filed against his opponent's ballots but later withdrew. A draft list Monday by the secretary of state's staff about how those votes should be allocated showed Franken leading by 48 votes. At the end of last week, he was up by 251, the first time since the Nov. 4 election that he had an advantage.

Some decisions reflected on the draft list released Monday may be challenged by the campaigns at today's meeting.

In addition, disputes over absentee ballots, claims that other votes were counted twice and a number of still-unresolved ballot challenges could change the margin yet again in an election that shows no sign of being settled soon.

The list that will be presented to the Canvassing Board today appears to be in line with what the Franken camp had been saying. On Saturday, the campaign said its own tracking of challenges showed him leading by 35 to 50 votes.

"This is sort of in the ballpark of where we thought it was going to fall for a few days now," Franken spokesman Andy Barr said.

Coleman's campaign dismissed the latest count.

"Al Franken's 'lead' is artificial, and this process is still a long way from being complete," said campaign manager Cullen Sheehan. "We have no doubt that when these issues are properly resolved, Senator Coleman will be reelected to the Senate."

While nearly all of the challenges have been ruled on or dropped and votes allocated, the Coleman campaign may still challenge about a dozen ballots and the Franken campaign four when the Canvassing Board meets today, said Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann.

Other fronts

Ballot challenges are just one front in the fight for the Senate seat.