DEMOCRATS ARE still in the hunt for a filibuster-proof 60-seat majority in the United States Senate, though the increasingly bitter and partisan recount in Minnesota is unlikely to be finished for weeks.
Republican Norm Coleman has a narrow 206-vote lead out of the 2.9 million cast over Democrat and ex-comedian Al Franken following the most expensive election campaign held in the state.
Minnesota is one of three states to yet conclude Senate elections. In Alaska, outgoing Republican senator Ted Stevens, already convicted on corruption charges, is now losing there. The result in Georgia was so tight it must be voted on again in December.
A victory for the Democrats in all three races, though unlikely, would give them a 60-seat majority, which would prevent Republicans from putting up any significant objections to the Democrats' legislative plans.
The Minnesota result is being recounted under a 2006 law that requires electronically scanned ballot papers to be rechecked in tight results. In 2006, a spot-check uncovered 53 discrepancies among 94,000 votes.
The Republicans will have two observers and one lawyer at every count centre, while Mr Franken has recruited 1,000 volunteers and 250 lawyers.
In Alaska, election officials resumed recounting absentee ballots, though the Democrat candidate, Mark Begich, is now 814 votes ahead of Ted Stevens, with just 40,000 votes to be counted.
Senior Senate leaders have already made it clear they will not let Mr Stevens take a seat in the chamber because of his conviction on corruption charges a week before the November 4th poll.
However, the result in Alaska, regardless of who wins, is likely to be so tight that it will automatically lead to a recount, which will mean that a final result from there will not be known either until sometime in December.
Meanwhile, a close friend of president-elect Barack Obama, Valerie Jarrett, has insisted she is not interesting in filling his Senate vacancy. Mr Obama intends to resign on Sunday.
His timing increases pressure on the Illinois governor, Rod Blagojevich, who alone has the authority to fill the vacancy, to make his choice quickly, a situation which the unpopular governor had been hoping to avoid.
Under Illinois law, the governor must chose someone to serve until the next federal election in 2010, unlike in Alaska where a new election will have to be held within 90 days if Mr Stevens wins but is then forced to step down.
Already, Mr Obama's fellow Illinois colleague in the Senate, Senator Dick Durbin, has warned the governor against appointing someone "who just wants a place in the Senate as the last line in their resume".
Congressman Jesse Jackson jnr, son of civil rights leader Rev Jesse Jackson, has lobbied for the post, though this will not happen without opposition. In Delaware, the vice-president-elect, Joe Biden, is to stand down from his place in the Senate. His son, the state's attorney general, is tipped to take his place once he returns from National Guard duty in Iraq.