They scolded, but they bent.

Judges Elizabeth Hayden, Kurt Marben and Denise Reilly changed their minds this morning on Pamela Howell.

Wednesday, Howell, a Republican election judge, described her experience with alleged double-counting of ballots in a south Minneapolis precinct.

Because Coleman’s lawyers hadn’t shared a document Howell produced with the Franken lawyers, Hayden, presiding Wednesday, struck Howell’s testimony.

It was a victory for the Franken side.

It was short lived.

This morning, at the start of the 24th day of the trial, the judges issued an order (PDF), saying that, while it’s in their discretion to eliminate Howell’s testimony, they concluded Coleman’s lack of providing the document was “inadvertent and not in bad faith.”

Franken’s lawyers will be allowed to continue cross-examination of Howell.

This morning, Minneapolis elections chief Cynthia Reichert was on the stand.

Friday, some key legal arguments are expected, including a biggie from the Coleman side: that the judges change their minds on their mega-ruling of Feb. 13 that limited the universe of Coleman’s potential ballots.

The argument suggests that the judges begin a new phase: not only would the case be about rejected ballots but could become one about already accepted votes. That would lead to the concept of “uncounting,” although the remedy to that seems impossible.

Talk about a potential can of worms...