By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff

Republican Sen. Norm Coleman continued to lead challenger Al Franken following a third day of hand-counting ballots in Minnesota.

By close of business Friday, Democrat Franken had gained a net total of 100 votes, with approximately 61 percent of the ballots recounted, according to the office of Minnesota’s secretary of state.

Franken now trails Coleman by 115 votes.

Minnesota’s automatic recount law was triggered when preliminary tallies of the 2.9 million ballots cast Nov. 4 showed Coleman with 1,211,590 and Franken with 1,211,375 — a margin of .007 percent.

Monitors from the two campaigns have challenged 1,525 ballots — 778 by Franken’s campaign, 747 by Coleman’s. Those ballots will be subject to review by the state canvassing board, which will convene Dec. 16 to begin tabulating the results of the recount. The board aims to review all challenged ballots by Dec. 19.