Early on in their case, Norm Coleman's lawyers pointed out that many absentee ballot voters may have been registered even though election officials might not have been aware of it.

That's because some voters mistakenly placed their voter registration cards in the secrecy envelope that is intended only for their ballot.

It also came to be known that there were two kinds of registration forms used in 2008; forms on cardboard stock and forms on regular paper. Even if election officials felt for the forms in the envelope -- or placed the envelopes up to a light -- they might not have been able to discern if a registration application were in there.

Two weeks ago, the three-judge panel ordered election officials statewide to go back into their rejected absentee ballot piles and open up secrecy ballots in search of registration forms.

The results are in. The search covered about 1,540 envelopes, Deputy Secretary of State  Jim Gelbmann told MinnPost today.

And, after the envelopes were opened, about 80 registration forms were found. Those envelopes were evenly divided between both campaigns' lists of ballots each wanted counted.

Eighty may seem like a tiny amount, but it actually means about 5 percent of the previously rejected ballots may now be acceptable. In an election with a margin of error far smaller than 1 percent, 80 votes could matter.