Strangely, everyone is watching the statewide Norm Coleman/Al Franken election recount tally go up and down.

Perhaps we’re all bored with the stock market.

The truth is, until all of the ballots are reviewed and judged by the canvassing board, watching the recount tally is pointless.

That’s because all the challenged votes are taken out of the candidate’s vote totals. And this reflects a large chunk of the votes “lost” by either candidate.

Picture a precinct with Coleman and Franken tied, each garnering 100 votes.

If Franken challenges 10 of Coleman’s votes, but Coleman only challenges 5 of Franken’s votes, the count would now be 95 to 90, with Franken holding a 5-vote lead.

However, the new count doesn’t mean anything. It’s an illusion. Those 15 votes are still up in the air. They haven’t gone to one side or the other.

And quite possibly they won’t. If Carver County’s recount is any indication, the continuing tally could merely indicate the zealousness of campaign officials. “The party with the most challenges doesn’t necessarily win,” County recount deputy Laurie Engelen noted.

In Carver County, some challenges included ballots with a printing press ink smudge, located outside of the round candidate ovals. In another challenge, someone who filled in the same ovals in red ink, then black.

Voter intent seems obvious in these cases, but apparently politics trumps common sense.

We only hope that the State Canvassing Board has several good sets of eyes. They’ll be staring at quite a few no-brainer ballots, wondering how they even ended up on their desk.

“I would say very few of the challenges in Carver County will be upheld,” said Engelen.

So wait until the canvassing board is through with the ballots before anointing a winner.

Meanwhile, remember to thank the Carver County employees and the part-time officials who counted, then recounted, the ballots.

It was a tough, monotonous task. And we know, with all of the hovering partisans, the workers weren’t getting paid nearly enough.