Minnesota election officials handed Democrat Al Franken two key victories Friday that may very well result in the former Saturday Night Live writer winning the state’s hotly contested senate race against incumbent Norm Coleman.

The state’s canvassing board, the panel that oversaw the recount between Franken and Coleman, said absentee ballots that were wrongfully rejected on Election Day should be included in the recount. The panel will ask county election boards to sort through and count the improperly rejected absentee ballots.

Additionally, the board said it will use Nov. 4 vote tallies from a Minneapolis precinct where 133 ballots disaapeared last week during the recount and remain unaccounted for.

Local election officials from that Minneapolis precinct said 2,029 people voted on Election Day and Franken will gain 46 net votes.

But it’s the canvassing board’s ruling on absentee ballots that gave Franken his biggest victory. Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann said there may be as many as 1,500 absentee ballots that were improperly rejected. 

“We are pleased that the state canvassing board has affirmed what we always believed to be true: Minnesota is not a state that disenfranchises its voters,” said Andy Barr, a spokesman for Franken’s campaign. “Today’s decisions represent positive and productive steps towards ensuring that this election is decided fairly and accurately, as well as a complete rejection of the Coleman campaign’s effort to throw out lawful votes from Minnesotans.”

Coleman’s campaign, meanwhile, said they will file a lawsuit with the state’s Supreme Court Friday to try and block the absentee ballots from being counted until procedures for reviewing them are drawn up.

“Nobody disputes that legally valid, cast votes should be counted,” said Coleman campaign attorney Fritz Knaak. “But, there can be no question that a legally valid cast vote is statutorily defined, not defined by the Secretary of State’s Office, but by law.

“So we will be filing a petition with the Minnesota Supreme Court to create clarity and more efficiency in this process as it moves forward, and at the same time to create a uniform standard- which will expedite the recount results by resolving the kind of disputes taking place now and will truly make sure that every vote counts so that we will eliminate disparities between counties.

Knaak also objected to the canvassing board’s decision to cite Election Day results from the Minneapolis precinct where the 133 ballots disappeared from. 

“As to the issue of the 133 so-called missing ballots in Minneapolis, we simply disagree with the decision on this matter, and it is obvious that any contest will include a vigorous discussion of this issue.”

The canvassing board made the decision on the absentee ballots after Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson, a Democrat, said the absentee ballots improperly rejected by election officials should be included in the recount.

“There is no doubt that voters who have complied with all legal requirements, but whose ballots were improperly rejected, should have their vote counted,” Swanson’s opinion said.

The canvassing board, which is chaired by Secretary of State Mark Ritchie, has asked counties in the state to identify absentee ballots improperly rejected and count them as part of the overall recount. 

Ritchie pointed out, however, that the canvassing board cannot force county election boards to identify absentee ballots that were wrongfully rejected. He said he would advise them to do so but ultimately it’s a voluntary decision. 

Earlier this week, Ramsey County Elections Manager Joe Mansky balked at having election officials in the county sort through the absentee ballots to determine how many were rejected improperly. He said he consulted with a county attorney and concluded that state law doesn’t require such a move-whether they were wrongfully rejected or not-into separate piles. Mansky said, “We probably need some direction from a court.”

At least five other counties also refused to separate absentee ballots wrongfully rejected. About 49 of the state’s 87 counties have sorted through 4,823 absentee ballots thus far and identified 638 that were wrongfully rejected.

Franken’s campaign launched an aggressive public relations effort to get the board to rule in its favor. Franken campaign attorneys filed a legal brief Thursday with Minnesota election officials that contained 62 affidavits from voters in the state who claim their absentee ballots were improperly rejected in the Nov. 4 election.

Additionally, Franken’s campaign provided the canvassing board with a video that contained testimonials of Minnesota voters who said their absentee ballots were rejected.

On Thursday, Franken’s campaign posted a video on YouTube that contains testimonials from eight voters who said they voted for Franken and had their ballots wrongfully rejected by state election officials. The campaign has also spun off a website where officials have been urging Minnesota voters whose ballots were rejected to tell their stories.

“In the closest Senate race in Minnesota history, every vote should be counted fairly,” begins the introduction to the. “But there are Minnesotans who had their votes thrown out, even though they did nothing wrong. They voted absentee, but their ballots were improperly rejected because of someone else’s mistake. And in the closest Senate race in Minnesota history, their votes remain uncounted.”

The recount in the closely watched contest ended last Friday with Coleman leading Franken by 687 votes. State election officials tallied 1,208,344 votes for Coleman and 1,207,657 votes for Franken, according to unofficial results posted Friday by Ritchie’s office. Franken’s campaign said their internal tally of the recount shows Franken leading Coleman by 4 votes. And the Minneapolis Star-Tribune’s analysis of the recount shows Coleman leading by 192 votes. 

The recount results tabulated by Ritchie and the Star-Tribunue, however, do not take into consideration thousands of ballots both campaigns have challenged. Franken’s campaign has withdrawn 1,758 challenged ballots and Coleman’s campaign withdrew 1,350. But there are still about 3,500 challenged ballots the canvassing board must contend with.

The state canvassing board will meet Dec. 16 to review the remaining challenged ballots and decide voter intent.