Here’s the response from Norm Coleman’s recount attorney, Fritz Knaak, to the Minnesota Supreme Court’s denial of Coleman’s motion to stop this afternoon’s State Canvassing Board certification of the vote.

Given our campaign’s unwavering commitment to ensuring that the vote of no Minnesotan is disenfranchised, today’s ruling by the Minnesota Supreme Court is both disappointing and disheartening.  The fact that the Franken campaign now rejects the notion of every valid vote being counted so they can attempt to declare victory on the basis of a broken process, and an artificial lead built on double counting of votes should concern all Minnesotans.  Today’s ruling, which effectively disregards the votes of hundreds of Minnesotans, ensures that an election contest is now inevitable.  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.

The Franken campaign response after the jump.

Here is the statement from Al Franken’s recount attorney, Marc Elias, in response to today’s Supreme Court order:

Today, the Supreme Court once again affirmed the validity of the rules under which
this recount was conducted. Minnesotans have waited a long time for a winner to be
declared in this race, and today, with the last attempt to halt the counting
process now having failed, Al Franken will be declared the winner.