MINNEAPOLIS, Minnesota — Democrat Al Franken declared victory in the hotly contested Minnesota Senate race Monday saying the win is "incredibly humbling."

A Minnesota board says Al Franken won his U.S. Senate race against Norm Coleman by 225 votes.

A Minnesota board says Al Franken won his U.S. Senate race against Norm Coleman by 225 votes.

The Minnesota State Canvassing Board on Monday certified the results of the recount of Republican Sen. Norm Coleman’s fight to retain his seat against Franken. The results showed Franken with a 225-vote lead.

"I am proud to stand before you as the next senator from Minnesota," Franken told reporters Monday night. "It’s clear that we have a lot of important work to do … I’m ready to go to Washington and get to work as soon as possible."

Coleman’s attorney, Tony Trimble, said shortly after the ruling that the campaign will officially file a lawsuit.

Coleman’s campaign contends the recount should have included about 650 absentee ballots it says were improperly rejected in the initial count.

The initial count from the November 4 election put Coleman, a first-term senator, 215 votes ahead of Franken, who is known for his stint on NBC’s "Saturday Night Live" and as a former talk-show host on progressive radio network Air America.

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Meanwhile, in a move that leaves a post-election legal challenge the last hope for Coleman, Minnesota’s high court earlier Monday denied his campaign’s request to consider about 650 additional rejected absentee ballots.

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His attorneys had said those ballots should have been included in the count of mistakenly rejected ballots that were tallied over the weekend.

The Coleman campaign also said Monday that there was no uniform standard for local officials and campaigns to review and tabulate these improperly rejected ballots.

Previously, the court had ordered that only ballots that local officials and both campaigns could agree were rejected in error could be counted. A consensus was met on about 950 of 1,350 originally found by local officials.

The court ruling suggested Coleman’s latest request should be a post-election consideration. The Coleman campaign, meanwhile, said it was determined to take the question to court.

"Today’s ruling, which effectively disregards the votes of hundreds of Minnesotans, ensures that an election contest is now inevitable," said Coleman attorney Fritz Knaak.

"The Coleman campaign has consistently and continually fought to have every validly cast vote counted, and for the integrity of Minnesota’s election system, we will not stop now. The Minnesota Supreme Court has made sure that an election contest will need to be filed quickly in order to ensure that an accurate and valid recount can be achieved."

Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York and chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, issued a statement Sunday declaring

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