Ballots being sent to voters

Ballots for the low-key Nov. 7 election will begin showing up in voters’ mailboxes in coming days across the Denver metro area and most of the state.

For the first time since 2009, the fall election features no statewide ballot measures to generate heat.

But voters will decide on plenty of important offices and issues — including city council races in Aurora, Littleton and Lakewood, among other cities; school board seats in Denver Public Schools and many other districts; and, in Denver, a proposed $937 million package of city bond projects.

Denver voters also will face Initiative 300, the Green Roof Initiative. It would mandate that the roofs of large new buildings incorporate rooftop gardens or solar panels.

Monday was the first day that county clerks and election officials could mail ballots, as the Denver Elections Division planned to do. Under the Colorado secretary of state’s official schedule, all ballots must be sent to eligible voters by Friday. (But ballots were mailed to military and overseas voters by Sept. 23.)

Six rural counties with no contested races or local ballot measures have canceled their elections: Cheyenne, Dolores, Grand, Hinsdale, Mineral and Washington.

Voters must return ballots early enough to ensure they’re in the hands of election officials by 7 p.m. on Nov. 7, when polls close. You can mail it or drop it off at county-designated locations. You still can vote in person at a polling center, but only if your mail ballot hasn’t been processed.

Though Colorado allows voters to register in person through Election Day, the official calendar says the last day to do so by mail, online, or at a driver’s licensing facility — and still have enough time to receive a mail ballot — is Oct. 30.