Voters across Colorado finish casting ballots at 7 p.m. tonight, deciding city council and school board races as well as local ballot issues ranging from funding for affordable housing and limits on oil and gas drilling to road improvements and municipal high-speed internet.

For the first time in eight years, though, there isn’t a statewide measure on the November ballot, so voters in six counties – Cheyenne, Dolores, Grand, Hinsdale, Mineral and Washington – that don’t have other contested elections aren’t voting at all.

Ballots went out in the mail three weeks ago to 3.2 million Colorado voters, and by Monday afternoon 810,360, or almost exactly 25 percent, had been returned. Voters who want their ballots counted have until 7 p.m. to get them to collection facilities and the secure, 24-hour drop boxes set up in every county or to vote in person at county vote centers. Check out www.govotecolorado.com for detailed election information.

Most counties should start posting initial results – generally counting all the ballots in hand by sometime on Election Day – soon after polls close at 7 p.m. County clerks typically post updates at intervals that can vary from 30 minutes to 90 minutes, with most describing their schedule on the county website. Find links to every county’s election page here.

For results collected statewide, check the Colorado secretary of state’s election reporting site starting at 7 p.m.

School boards

Colorado’s longstanding battle over public education continues with school board elections in three key districts – Denver, Douglas and Jefferson – although it’s the outcome of the races in Douglas County that could have the most immediate and longterm impact. A district plan to pay for private school vouchers has been wrapped up in litigation over its constitutionality for years – the U.S. Supreme court recently sent the case back to Colorado – and if a single seat swings away from a slim conservative majority, the board could decide to kill the voucher program and drop the lawsuit.

Oil and gas

Amid fierce disputes over how much control local governments can exercise over drilling operations, voters in Broomfield are being asked whether to amend the city charters to let the city regulate oil and gas development within its borders.

Big spending

Stormwater fee

Going green

A Denver initiative to require “green roofs” – could be plants, could be solar panels – on some portion of new construction larger than 25,000 square feet has run into major opposition, even from members of the environmental community that typically backs the concept.

Broadband

Mind the gap

Affordable housing

Recalls

All three members of the Custer County commission are facing recall elections spearheaded by local activists who claim the commissioners held secret meetings and decided policy behind closed doors. The commissioners deny the allegations.

Two trustees in the town of Mead are subject to recall based on allegations they didn’t vigorously oppose banning marijuana sales in town, among other charges. One of the trustees says their critics are misguided and misunderstand the process – the town still doesn’t allow retail marijuana shops – while the other trustee hasn’t responded to the charges.