Democrat Al Franken was the narrow winner of last year’s Senate race in Minnesota, the state Supreme Court ruled Tuesday.

Within hours, former Republican Sen. Norm Coleman conceded defeat and Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty said he would sign Franken’s certificate of election later Tuesday.

“I am so excited to finally be able to get to work for the people of Minnesota,” Franken said.

Franken “received the highest number of votes legally cast and is entitled ... to receive the certificate of election as United States senator from the state of Minnesota,” the court’s unanimous opinion said.

The decision brought an end to a seven-month, multimillion-dollar series of recounts and legal battles over the hard-fought election.

The Senate seat has been vacant since January, when Coleman’s six-year term expired.

Democrats have been anxious to get their candidate installed, since Franken will give them 60 seats in the Senate, counting two independents who caucus with them. Sixty is the number of votes needed to cut off filibusters, and it’s a power that no Senate majority has enjoyed in the past 30 years.

“Sixty is a magic number, but it isn’t,” said Franken. “We have senators — Republicans who are going to vote with the Democrats, with a majority of Democrats on certain votes, and Democrats who are going to vote with a majority of Republicans on others. So it’s not quite the magic number as some people might say.

“But I hope we do get President Obama’s agenda through,” he said.

The court rejected Coleman’s claim that thousands of Minnesota absentee voters were disenfranchised by inconsistent standards the counties used for counting absentee ballots. Instead, it upheld a trial court’s April ruling that found Franken defeated Coleman by 312 votes out of 2.9 million cast.

That trial was held after a six-week statewide hand recount, conducted between Nov. 19 and Jan. 5, determined that Franken had won by 225 votes.

“Because we conclude that appellants have not shown that the trial court’s findings of fact are clearly erroneous or that the court committed an error of law or abused its discretion, we affirm,” the Minnesota Supreme Court opinion said.

Tuesday’s ruling — and Coleman’s decision not to carry his fight into the federal courts — paved the way for Pawlenty to certify Franken as the winner in the race. The certification was signed Tuesday.