The attempt by Norm Coleman’s legal team to halt the handling of 933 previously counted votes may have come too late.

First thing this morning, Coleman’s lawyers filed a motion for a Temporary Restraining Order.

But Deputy Secretary of State Jim Gelbmann told MinnPost minutes ago about half of the 933 ballots and votes have already had their identifying numbers redacted.

He said his staff began removing the numbers on the ballots around 8:50 a.m.. When they received the TRO papers at about 9:30 a.m., they halted the redaction effort.

Gelbmann said the court order to begin removing identifying numbers came Feb. 3. The attorrney general’s office thought a three-week window to redact the identifying marks was sufficient. So, today was the day.

Exactly what this means for the Coleman TRO attempt is unclear right now.

As always, stay tuned.