SANDPOINT - The Bonner County Clerk's Office issued its 4,500th absentee ballot on Thursday afternoon.

"We even threw confetti and gave out candy to the poor unsuspecting soul - who took it all in stride!" Clerk Marie Scott said in an e-mail announcing the new milestone for absentee voting in Bonner County.

Several hours earlier in the day, the clerk's office tallied 4,451 ballots issued, which represents about 18 percent of the county's 23,450 registered voters. Of the absentee ballots issued, 3,718 have been returned, which results in a current return rate of about 83 percent.

The smashed-to-bits absentee record was set in the 2004 general election, when 2,900 ballots were issued. The county surpassed that record by mid-October.

As of Oct. 28, Idaho had 757,312 registered voters, 161,537 of whom had sought absentee ballots, according to Scott. That amounts to about 18 percent of the registered voters in Idaho. More than 3,400 had returned their absentee ballots.

Friday, Scott demonstrated how the ballots will be counted on election night. Bonner County counts its ballots using an optical scan machine lovingly referred to as "The Terminator."