Politics

ST. PAUL (AP) ― No longer a U.S. senator, Republican Norm Coleman prepared to go to court Tuesday to overturn a state board's certification that Democrat Al Franken won the U.S. Senate recount.

Coleman's lawyers vowed a legal challenge a day earlier, arguing that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly excluded from the recount. Coleman scheduled a 3 p.m. news conference at the State Capitol to talk about his next steps.

Minnesota law prohibits final certification of a winner in the face of such a lawsuit, meaning the race could remain in limbo for several more months.

Franken declared victory Monday, but a spokesman for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said the former "Saturday Night Live" personality would not be sworn in with new senators on Tuesday. A Franken spokeswoman declined Tuesday to reveal if he was in Washington or what he would do during a legal challenge.

Minnesota's Canvassing Board on Monday certified that Franken won 225 more votes than Coleman, out of almost 3 million cast.

"I am proud to stand before you as the next senator from Minnesota," Franken told reporters in brief remarks outside his downtown Minneapolis condominium.

The Canvassing Board's certification of the recount results started a seven-day clock for Coleman to file a lawsuit. His attorney, Tony Trimble, said Monday afternoon that the challenge would be filed within 24 hours.

"This process isn't at an end," Trimble said. "It is now just at the beginning."

When the smoke cleared after the election, Coleman appeared to hold a 215-vote lead. But Franken made up the deficit over seven tortuous weeks of ballot-sifting in part by prevailing on more challenges that both campaigns brought to thousands of ballots.

Franken also did better than Coleman when election officials opened and counted more than 900 absentee ballots that had erroneously been disqualified on Election Day.

Coleman's lawyers have argued that some ballots were mishandled and others were wrongly excluded from the recount, giving Franken an unfair advantage. Such claims are likely to be a major feature of any lawsuit.

Secretary of State Mark Ritchie was careful Monday to note that the board was simply signing off on the numbers found by the recount: Franken, with 1,212,431 votes, and Coleman, with 1,212,206 votes.

"We're not doing anything today that declares winners or losers or anything to that effect," Ritchie said.

All five members of the canvassing board -- Ritchie, plus two state Supreme Court justices and two Ramsey County judges -- voted to accept the recount results. And the four judges, including two appointees of Republican governors, praised Ritchie and his staff as being fair and diligent.

A lawsuit would extend the fight over the seat for months. Any court case would open doors closed to the campaigns during the administrative recount. They would be able to access voter rolls, inspect machines and get testimony from election workers.

The case would fall to a three-judge panel picked by Chief Justice Eric Magnuson of the Supreme Court. Magnuson served on the Canvassing Board, but declined to say Monday if he would remove himself from the selection process as a result. Magnuson was an appointee of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty.

Costs of the election lawsuit fall to the campaigns. But there is a provision in state law that exposes the government to costs if prior results are reversed due to an irregularity in election procedure.

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Norm Coleman was born in New York City in 1949. Al Franken was born in New York City in 1951.

(© 2009 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)