ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — Democrat Al Franken’s Senate campaign, trailing slightly just before a statewide recount, argued Monday that a key Minnesota election board should examine rejected absentee ballots before certifying the race results. Those ballots are at the heart of legal and procedural disputes that have emerged as the near-deadlocked election moves into this week’s manual recount of more than 2.9 million ballots. Republican Sen. Norm Coleman leads by 206 votes — a lead so slim that it triggered the automatic recount. Franken’s legal team contends that eligible voters shouldn’t have ballots excluded on “mere technicalities” and requests that the state canvassing Board examine rejected absentee ballots.—-Contact The Daily Reveille’s news staff at [email protected]