There’s nothing middling about the 2018 midterm. And Colorado Politics is poised to bring you the action.

After the polls close on Tuesday, join us at ColoradoPolitics.com for live coverage as the election results roll in.

Midterm elections can be sleepy affairs, but not this year. As voting in Colorado’s general election wraps up, the state’s residents are showing more interest than in most years when the presidency isn’t up for grabs.

And what a midterm ballot it is, with Coloradans picking a new governor, a new attorney general and a new state treasurer, and with control of the state Senate at stake.

The hard-fought race in the suburban-Denver 6th District could help determine whether Democrats snatch the U.S. House of Representatives from the Republicans.

As for ballot measures, Colorado has plenty – 13 to be exact, on oil and gas, school funding, transportation and gerrymandering.

And the ballot is crowded with local candidates and issues.

As of Monday, 1,514,817 ballots had been received and validated by Colorado election officials – well over the 1,379,962 ballots that had been turned in at the same point in 2014, the state’s last midterm election, Colorado Politics’ Marianne Goodland reports.

And in perhaps an ominous sign for gubernatorial candidate Walker Stapleton and other Republicans on the ballot, Democrats have been voting in higher numbers than four years ago, and Republican ballots have been lagging.

Facing off in the governor’s race are two men with roots in business and sharply contrasting views on how to make Colorado better.

Democrat Jared Polis, Boulder’s congressman, has offered a wide range of proposals for new programs in health, education and energy, while at times being vague about how he would finance his plans. And that’s been the main theme of Republican Stapleton, the state treasurer, who attacks Polis’ agenda as “radical and extreme” while he emphasizes fiscal responsibility, cutting regulations and standing up for oil and gas.

Polls have consistently shown Polis leading.

Two other statewide races are wide open. Republican prosecutor George Brauchler faces Democratic former law school dean Phil Weiser in the race to succeed Attorney General Cynthia Coffman, while Democratic state Rep. Dave Young and Republican businessman Brian Watson are vying to follow Stapleton as state treasurer. And Republican incumbent Secretary of State Wayne Williams is being challenged by Democratic attorney Jena Griswold.

As for ballot measures, among the key proposals are dueling measures to pump more money into fixing Colorado transportation – one, Proposition 110, involving new taxes; the other, Proposition 109, squeezing money from existing funds.

There’s also a pair of constitutional amendments – Y and Z – to reshape how Colorado draws up its congressional and legislative district boundaries. Another measure, Amendment 73, would tax the wealthy and raise the corporate rate to pump more money into schools.

Yet another proposal, Amendment 75, would reshape campaign finance rules in cases where rich candidates contribute millions to their own campaigns.

And perhaps the most controversial measures: One – Proposition 112 – would ban oil and gas development within almost half a mile of homes and schools, and another – Amendment 74 – would make government pay property owners if regulations – for example, on oil and gas development – reduce the value of their holdings.

Under the golden dome of the state Capitol, where Republicans have a narrow majority in the state Senate, a handful of races will determine whether the GOP can keep its tenuous hold on the chamber or whether Democrats – who already enjoy a comfortable lead in the House – can wrest away control.

Nationally, control of Congress is at stake. Right now, Republicans hold both the U.S. House and Senate, but that balance of power could change, with some pundits predicting a “blue wave” that could put one or both houses of Congress in Democrats’ hands. Others see the recent ugly fight over the confirmation of Brett Kavanaugh for the Supreme Court as energizing Republicans.

In particular, pollsters and pundits see a real chance that Democrat Jason Crow could capture Colorado’s 6th Congressional District seat from Republican incumbent Mike Coffman. But Coffman has proven over the years to be a wily campaigner, dashing the hopes of Democrats who thought they had a good shot.

So there’s a lot to cover election night. Joey Bunch, Ernest Luning, Marianne Goodland, Conrad Swanson, Dan Njegomir, Erin Prater and I will tell you not only who’s winning, but what it means.

And stay with us over the next few days as we unpack the election results and explain what lies ahead for the state.

We’ll be backed by The Gazette’s award-winning news team, which will focus on Colorado Springs-area races. The Gazette’s Ellie Mulder will be live-blogging on the results.

Stay up to date with our free email news alerts and newsletters; sign up at coloradopolitics.com/newsletter. And follow us on Twitter and on Facebook.

We hope you’ll join us. For background on all the key races, check out our Election Preview special report in our Oct. 12 print edition, or online here. For all our election coverage to date, click here.