The state Canvassing Board has started reviewing challenged ballots in Minnesota's U.S. Senate recount -- an at-times laborious process that likely will take days to complete.
The board - four jurists and the secretary of state - started with some of the 441 ballots challenged by Democrat Al Franken's campaign.
Board members had little difficulty determining the voter's intent in many cases. However, they grappled with other ballots, such as ones in which only a small mark was placed in the oval for Franken or Sen. Norm Coleman.
It took the board less than a minute to determine some ballots, but several minutes to decide others.
One ballot contained a small smiley face, which apparently created a question when the ballot came up during a recount of the state's 2.9 million ballots. Another included votes for Ronald Reagan. Many involved small, apparently stray, marks near the name of one candidate when the other candidate obviously was the voter's pick.
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The Coleman and Franken campaigns challenged the nearly 1,500 ballots the board is examining. Secretary of State Mark Ritchie said he expects the board to wrap up its work Friday.
Board member and state Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson admitted the board may not be "entirely consistent" in all of its ballot decisions during the process.
"A lot of this is how the ballot strikes us," he said.
