SUMMIT COUNTY — More than 97 percent of Summit County’s registered voters cast a ballot in Tuesday’s election, a 10 percent jump from the last presidential campaign, according to election officials.

Some 14,882 votes were cast, with an estimated 50 provisional ballots still to be counted, said Cheri Brunvand, the Summit County clerk and recorder.

“We are very happy,” she said. “It was a great turnout and went real smooth.”

The turnout reflected an increase of 1,018 votes over the 2004 election and 3,814 more votes cast than in the 2000 election.

Measured against the more recent 2006 mid-term election, which included an election for Colorado’s governor, 4,840 more voters went to the polls.

County officials haven’t determined how this voter turnout compares historically and the possibility of it being a record.

“I don’t know off the top of my head, but I would guess it is,” Brunvand said.

The elections office now will begin the task of counting the provisional ballots and verifying them. As of Wednesday morning, the box carrying the ballots had yet to be opened.

The provisional ballots were used as a way to solve Election Day problems. Any would-be voter whose registration could not be confirmed received a provisional ballot and, they were put into the box, Brunvand said.

“Following the election, we go back and research, and people are in our problem files,” Brunvand said. “Usually it’s people who left information off the application, and we check the records and the (provisional) vote usually does count.”

Jonathan Batuello can be reached at (970) 668-4653 or jbatuello@summitdaily.com.