The missing 133 ballots in Minneapolis remain unfound, while 99% of all the state's ballots have been recounted, the Minneapolis Star Tribune reports.

The U.S. Senate recount neared its final hours Thursday, buffeted by the kinds of disputes over missing ballots and challenged ballots that have become familiar in the month since the post-election drama began.

Yet at day's end, with 99 percent of the ballots counted, the gap separating Republican Sen. Norm Coleman and Democrat Al Franken was only 36 votes larger than it had been at the start. Coleman now leads by 251, according to Star Tribune tabulations.

For more on the missing ballots and other recount news, the St. Paul Pioneer-Press has a great write-up:

The drama, the suspense, the hard work, the long hours, the hyperbolic rhetoric, and now — on what otherwise would have been the final day of the largest hand recount in Minnesota history — it comes down to this:

One plain, mostly blank white envelope, measuring 8 1/2-by-17 inches. Distinctive markings: "1 of 5."

Contents: 133 ballots.

Whereabouts: Unknown.

Importance: Possibly the difference in the U.S. Senate race between Republican incumbent Norm Coleman and Democratic challenger Al Franken.