By Emily Cadei, CQ Staff

Two days into what locals are dubbing “The Great Minnesota Recount,” Democratic challenger Al Franken has narrowed his vote deficit against Republican Sen. Norm Coleman .

Franken gained a net total of 86 votes in the first 48 hours of hand counting. By the close of business Thursday, he trailed by 129 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.

State officials said 42 percent of ballots have now been counted.

Monitors from the two campaigns have challenged 734 ballots — 374 by Franken’s campaign, 360 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.

Both sides expressed satisfaction with how the recount is proceeding.

The Coleman campaign released a statement saying, “Things appear to be progressing as well as can be expected given the first and second day jitters.”

The Franken campaign’s lead counsel, Marc Elias, said, “From our standpoint we have reason to be optimistic.”