Coleman spent Monday afternoon at his St. Paul home, reviewing drafts of an appeal his attorneys will file with the Minnesota Supreme Court, where he thinks he'll have a strong case.

A final order from the three-judge panel that heard the election contest was issued Monday, declaring his opponent Democrat Al Franken the winner. But Coleman says he isn't stopping his fight.

"This court has not opened envelopes with absentee ballots for over 4,000 probably closer to 4,500 Minnesotans who we think should have their votes counted," Coleman explained.

Coleman says the appeal will be based on due process and equal protection issues regarding the handling of thousands of absentee ballots.

"If you're in Carver County and you didn't have a registered witness for your ballot, it wasn't counted. If you're in Minneapolis, it counted. If you're in St. Louis County, Duluth, it counted," said Coleman.

There’s speculation about what impact dragging this process out will have on his future political ambitions—like a possible run for governor in 2010.

"I'm really not looking ahead to 2010," Coleman said. "I have great confidence in the Minnesota system."

The day after the election when Coleman lead by more than 700 votes, he professed confidence in our election system and said Franken should step aside.

"Two weeks or three weeks after I said that, when we got into this, I said that was a foolish statement. I must have been very tired when I said that," said Coleman.

Coleman says he now knows Minnesota’s absentee voting system is flawed, and he'll take it as far as he has to—including a federal appeal.

"My fight ends when the ballots are counted," Coleman stated.

So he wouldn't come out and say it directly, but it appears that if the Minnesota Supreme Court doesn't ask for more ballots to be counted this could be headed to federal court.

Either way, the Minnesota U.S. Senate race contest will drag on until summer.

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