Minnesota Republican Norm Coleman, refusing to concede to Democrat Al Franken in their hotly contested Senate race, is turning to the courts in a last-ditch bid to win a second term that is slipping from his grasp.

“We are filing this contest to be absolutely sure that every valid vote is counted,” Coleman said at a news conference in St. Paul, Minn., Tuesday afternoon.

Franken claimed victory Monday after the state Canvassing Board certified results of a prolonged recount that showed the Democrat edging Coleman by 225 votes out of nearly 3 million cast.

“While I understand there is a desire by a small number of people to move on, something greater than expediency is at stake here,” Coleman said. Fairness, he said, is more important than speed.

As he was speaking, Coleman’s attorneys filed the lawsuit, called an “election contest,” in Minnesota state court.

The recount in Minnesota lasted a month and a half and produced a swing of more than 400 votes from Coleman to Franken, after initial returns from the Nov. 4 election had showed Coleman with a 215-vote lead.

Franken’s apparent victory will not be official until the governor and Minnesota’s secretary of State certify the election results. And under state law, that cannot happen until legal challenges to the outcome are resolved.

Coleman and his attorneys framed their request for judicial review as part of the proper election process, and said the state owes it to its citizens to make sure the vote is accurate and valid.

Coleman’s suit includes three main complaints: that more than 100 ballots were counted twice in a handful of Minnesota precincts, to Franken’s benefit; that 654 absentee ballots were improperly rejected and should be included in the count; and that new ballots and missing ballots discovered during the recount were included in the tally without proper reconciliation with Election Day totals.

The case will be heard by a three-judge panel appointed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Eric Magnuson, an appointee of Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty . Magnuson was also a member of the five-person canvassing board that certified the recount totals. He participated fully in the board’s recount but recused himself, as a justice, from hearing various petitions filed by the Senate candidates during the recount process.

The judicial panel now will have 20 days to begin the court proceedings. Attorneys for Coleman estimated a trial of the case itself could last a month or more.

Democrats Fire Back

Franken attorney Marc Elias dismissed Coleman’s lawsuit as without merit, saying many of the allegations were “unsubstantiated and unclear.”