Video (02:10) : Norm Coleman plans to contest the certification of ballots that put Al Franken in the lead of the U.S. Senate race.

Surrounded by cheering supporters, Republican Norm Coleman, who received 225 fewer votes than DFLer Al Franken in the U.S. Senate recount, vowed Tuesday to wage a court battle to challenge the outcome. "Not every valid vote has been counted, and some have been counted twice," Coleman said. "Let's take the time right now in this contested race to get it right." In deciding to fight on, Coleman rejected Monday's ruling of the state Canvassing Board, which certified the results that gave Franken the lead. The next phase of the dispute will take place in Ramsey County District Court, where Coleman will try to convince a three-judge panel that he was hurt by votes that were wrongly excluded and improperly included in the recount. Coleman made his announcement at a news conference surrounded by a feisty group of supporters in a room of the State Office Building in St. Paul. When Coleman was asked whether he had considered conceding the race, the crowd shouted in chorus, "No!" Later, Franken's lead recount attorney, Marc Elias, called Coleman's case "an uphill battle to overturn the will of the people" and said it raised no decisive issues. "It is essentially the same thin gruel, warmed-over leftovers ... that they have been serving the last few weeks." Elias also said that the Franken campaign will use the court contest to raise its own questions about whether more ballots should have been tallied. The campaign has secured affidavits from several voters who said their ballots weren't counted, he said. A trial is expected to begin within 20 days, and a Coleman lawyer said a decision may not be known until two months from now. Coleman's decision to go to court came as pressure was building for him to concede. Former Republican Gov. Arne Carlson said Tuesday that Coleman should consider bowing out. "I don't think it's winnable," said Carlson, who served from 1991-99. He said contesting the recount results could hurt the Republican's image.

"I think there will be a tremendous amount of public anger, I think it will hurt his reputation," Carlson said. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Coleman is "entitled to the opportunity to proceed however he sees fit. But for someone who's been in the trenches on a number of these elections, graciously conceding, like his friend John Ensign did, would be the right step. This can't drag on forever." Asked about such comments, Coleman acknowledged "a desire by a small number of people to simply move on," but said, "Speed is not the first objective. Fairness is. ... We will not permit the full process to be shortcut. That would only cast greater doubt and uncertainty over the final result." New range of issues The Canvassing Board's work focused on interpreting voter intent on ambiguous ballots challenged by the campaigns. But the court contest will examine a wider range of issues. Coleman's lawsuit says the Canvassing Board's rulings on ballot challenges were inconsistent, and that ballots were both improperly rejected and wrongly counted by local elections officials and the secretary of state to the advantage of Franken. After Coleman's announcement, his recount lawyers Tony Trimble and Fritz Knaak released a 33-page summary of documents filed in Ramsey County Court. The file includes dozens of copies of envelopes for rejected absentee ballots that the campaign says should have been accepted. Some went unopened even though they were marked "accepted," others were delivered to the wrong precinct, and still others were rejected over other clerical errors. Knaak said campaign lawyers are in the process of conducting "a very real investigation," interviewing local elections officials and taking statements that can be used in court. He promised testimony about double-voting in some precincts.