DENVER -- Republican 7th Congressional District candidate Bob Beauprez filed a notice of appeal Thursday in the provisional ballot legal dispute as county clerks announced results indicating he won by 122 votes.

Beauprez is running against Democrat Mike Feeley for the newly-created seat in Congress. The winning margin was so narrow it will trigger an automatic recount of all the votes, said state officials.

"We feel pretty confident. Although the margin was very narrow, we are comfortable (the results) will hold up," Bob Beauprez told 7NEWS in an exclusive interview from Washington.

Feeley spokesman Steve Welchert said Feeley will wait for the recount.

"There have been so many inconsistencies and discrepancies in this process, it wouldn't surprise me at all to see these numbers change some more," Welchert said.

The Beauprez appeal filed Thursday claimed the judge went too far by ordering all provisional votes in the district to be counted. It also claimed the court erred by allowing Democratic candidate Mike Feeley to present hypothetical victims who were denied their right to vote.

The appeal notice was filed with the Colorado Supreme Court Thursday, the station said. The court will decide if the issue warrants a full hearing.

7NEWS obtained the election results from Jefferson, Adams and Arapahoe Counties, with all provisional votes counted. The results showed Beauprez received 81,530 votes and Freeley received 81,408 votes. The totals included early voting, absentee, Election Day and provisional ballots.

Anytime the final margin between candidates is within one-half of 1 percent of the votes for the apparent winner, state law requires an automatic recount.

Secretary of State Davidson was in Vail Thursday, but issued this statement regarding the results and a number of disputed ballots:

"We instructed the (County) clerks to conduct their canvass pursuant to the instructions of the court. We will now move forward with the certification of results. Based on the results ... it appears the 88 ballots in dispute would not change the outcome of the election one-way or the other. We will not appeal the decision of the Denver District Court to the Colorado Supreme Court."

Election Day results put Beauprez ahead of Feeley by 386 votes. About 6,500 provisional ballots were cast in the counties, but only about 2,300 affected the outcome of the 7th District race.

Provisional ballots, allowed in Colorado for the first time this year, permit people who thought they were qualified to cast ballots even though their names were not on voter-registration rosters at the polls.

Under a new state law, clerks were required to verify that the voters were qualified before counting the ballots.