The final canvas of the Nov. 4 election confirmed Democrat Dennis Apuan captured the House District 17 seat, the Clerk and Recorder's Office reported Wednesday.

Posting results two days before the deadline, the clerk's office reported that 274,681 people voted, a record for El Paso County. The 2004 presidential election drew 242,888 voters.

Voters set two other records as well: a record 37,198 voted early, and a record 138,763 voted by mail.

Clerk and Recorder Bob Balink said he had more than 200,000 paper ballots left over, disspelling concerns that some precincts would run out during the heavy turnout on Election Day.

"The point is you don't want to run out," he told commissioners Monday.

The watchdog group Ethics Watch and others had said before the election they doubted Balink was prepared with enough ballots.

Attorney Chantell Taylor said Wednesday in an e-mail that Ethics Watch was still troubled by Balink's refusal to disclose his plans for dealing with an expected record turnout.

"Why did he so vehemently resist transparency?" she said.

Commissioner Jim Bensberg commended Balink, saying, "In spite of the fears of running out of paper ballots, we didn't have that problem in any of the polling places."

County elections manager Liz Olson reported there were no surprises in canvassing the vote - a process in which election officials verify the number of ballots cast matches the number of people who voted and confirm the results.

"Everything has gone as planned for sure," she said. "We're not required to certify until Friday and we're certifying it today (Wednesday), so I think we're doing pretty well."

Apuan defeated Catherine "Kit" Roupe for the House seat by 380 votes in the unofficial results. He gained 162votes during the canvas, which included counting about 7,700 provisional ballots.

Balink said 86 percent of the provisional ballots cast were valid. Provisional ballots are cast by those who aren't on the voter rolls for some reason but think they're a qualified voter. Provisional ballots are counted after Election Day.

About 1,300 provisional ballots were disqualified because voters weren't registered or didn't comply with the identification requirement, Olson said.

"To have 7,700 of the 9,000 provisional ballots cast count is a testament to the beauty of the provisional ballot system," Balink said. "There's no question that it works, and it helps enfranchise and let people who had some issue with their registration get that validated during the canvas period and have that count."

Balink noted his employees worked 32,000 hours on the election, including Election Day, which began for them at 5 a.m. Nov. 4 and ended at 4:30 a.m. Nov. 5.

Balink said the final cost of the election won't be tabulated for several weeks.

In December or January, his office will analyze issues surrounding the election, including voter registration drives, polling place election judges' mistakes, ballot printing costs and provisional ballot procedures.

Balink asked commissioners if they intend to conduct the November 2009 election by mail only. Commissioners said they're leaning that way to save money.