Something was resolved today on Day 4 of the long-running Norm Coleman-Al Franken battle for Minnesota’s U.S. Senate seat.

The Maplewood 171 dispute is now history.

Another day of testimony from Deputy Secretary of State James Gelbmann -- along with two voters and Ramsey County Elections Director Joe Mansky -- produced one significant result: 171 votes from Maplewood that had been in question will, in fact, be included in the final Senate count.

These are the so-called “found” votes from Maplewood during the recount.

No one had ever charged they were tampered with, but they weren’t counted on Election Day. They were included in the recount and in Al Franken’s 225-vote lead that was approved by the State Canvassing Board.

But, as part of his election contest, Norm Coleman questioned the validity of those 171 votes … until today when Coleman lawyer Joe Friedberg withdrew Coleman’s challenge.

In that precinct on Election Night, Franken outpolled Coleman 628 to 542.

But when the 171 votes were discovered during the recount – they were in an envelope that had been mistakenly not counted on Election Night – Franken picked up 91 votes and Coleman 52. (Other candidates received the remaining 28 votes.)

Thus, in those found 171, Franken netted 39 votes, which is a bunch in a total state margin of 225.

Coleman legal spokesman Ben Ginsberg said during a break in the testimony today that the Coleman side was satisfied that the chain of custody of those votes hadn’t been broken and they were legitimately cast and counted votes.

Said Franken lawyer Marc Elias: “There was no ‘there’ there.”

On Day Four, that was great progress.

Still in the balance: the fate of rejected absentee ballots – numbers to be determined -- and the status of 133 missing votes in Minneapolis that have been included in the total state tally.

Also, it feels like it’s time for Judges Kurt Marben, Elizabeth Hayden and Denise Reilly to weigh in on how they might narrow the scope and time of the trial. So far, the judges have been giving the lawyers on both sides broad range.

More testimony set for Friday.