Some good news for Al Franken: The state canvasing board just voted unanimously to compensate for the loss of those 133 missing ballots in Minneapolis by going back to the recorded Election Night vote totals for this precinct, sparing Al the loss of a net 46 votes.

This means Franken has survived a major threat, as his campaign's calculations of how the race would go ultimately depended on the ballots being found or compensated for.

The Coleman campaign had been arguing against this move, on the grounds that the state can't count ballots that no longer seem to exist -- they were believed to be in a ballot marked "1 of 5," but can no longer be found -- while the Franken camp said that to do otherwise would be to disenfranchise the 133 people who had the poor luck of having their ballots end up in a lost envelope.

The board, made up of a mixture of Republicans, Democrats and independents, has sided with Franken on this one.

More to come.

Late Update: To be clear, we're watching the hearing over here on a streaming video feed.

Late Late Update: State Atty. Gen. Lori Swanson (D) just gave her advisory opinion on another very big issue, whether absentee ballots that appear to have been improperly rejected should be put back in the count. Swanson told the board that they have the authority to request (but not order) that counties meet again to count those ballots. If the board sides with Swanson, this could be a huge boost to Franken, as he had a good-sized lead among the overall absentee ballots, and introducing new votes into the count would probably net him some more in the total.