AP Photo/Craig Lassig
Accompanied by his wife Franni, Al Franken talks with reporters outside his home in Minneapolis after a court confirmed that Democrat Franken won the most votes in his 2008 Senate race against Republican Norm Coleman.

Panel: Al Franken won Minnesota U.S. Senate race over Norm Coleman. Rachel E. Stassen-Berger of the St. Paul (Minn.) Pioneer Press writes a thorough story:

...Three judges -- Stearns County's Elizabeth Hayden, Pennington County's Kurt Marben and Hennepin County's Denise Reilly -- decided Monday that Republican Norm Coleman failed to prove he received the most legally cast votes. Like all their decisions in the case, the three judges' final ruling was unanimous.

"Franken received the highest number of legally cast ballots in the Nov. 4, 2008, general election for United States Senator for the State of Minnesota and is entitled to receive the election certificate," the judges wrote.

They said his final margin of victory was 312 votes out of nearly 3 million cast.

While Franken said he looks forward to receiving an election certificate as soon as possible -- "it's long past time we got to work," he said -- he is unlikely to be seated in the Senate any time soon.

Coleman has pledged to appeal the decision to the state Supreme Court, which would put an election certificate on hold, at least until the state court fight is complete.

...But after a seven-week trial, 1,717 exhibits, 142 witnesses and 19,181 pages of pleadings, motions and briefs, the trial court left little doubt about its decision.

Point by point, the judges dissected Coleman's case in their 56-page decision Monday. Point by point, they dismissed it.

The double-counting Coleman alleged existed during the recount? Unproven, the judges wrote. Coleman's objection to using an Election Day count in lieu of lost ballots from a Minneapolis precinct? Dismissed, the judges declared. His complaints that the state voter-registration system was not up-to-date and was flawed? No, they wrote, it's "trustworthy." And his conflicted claims about absentee ballots? Well, read on -- because Coleman has vowed to continue fighting on that front.

His entire case was dismissed "with prejudice," and Coleman was ordered to pay Franken's and the court's costs for the entire trial as well as Franken's costs and attorneys fees for three days' delay caused by Coleman attorneys' errors. ...

Here's a pdf of the Court's decision.

No decision is expected from a state supreme court appeal before Memorial Day. A federal appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court might follow, if Coleman loses that one. Only then would Gov. Tim Pawlenty certify the new Senator.