Roughly 3.5 million Coloradans will cast a ballot by 7 p.m. today, their choices potentially steering the state on an array of issues  — from hunting to taxation to education. 

Even as the country’s attention is focused on the race for the White House between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris, Coloradans are poised to decide how future elections are conducted and whether to enshrine school choice or abortion rights in the Colorado Constitution.

In another question, voters might ban Coloradans from hunting big cats.

Those are just a few of the 14 questions on the statewide ballot.

Also on election night, the state’s voters could have a hand in picking which party wields the gavel in the U.S. House of Representatives when the next Congress convenes in January.

There’s plenty of action in local jurisdictions, as well.   

In Denver, voters will determine the fate of the sole slaughterhouse inside city limits, along with rendering a verdict on two proposed sales tax hikes expected to generate $100 million for housing and $70 million for Denver Health, respectively.

Elsewhere, voters will consider whether to let local governments keep and spend all of the tax revenue they collect. In some jurisdictions, voters will also decide whether to approve borrowing money for schools. 

Voters in Aurora stand to either repeal a ban on certain pit bull breeds or keep it in place. 

More than 2 million Colorado voters had already returned their ballots through midnight Sunday, according to the Colorado Secretary of State’s Office. Add to that another 1.5 million ballots expected to be received by the time the polls close at 7 p.m. on Election Day, assuming the 87% turnout rate from the 2020 presidential election holds true this time around.

As of Monday, the statewide turnout rate stood at 52%. 

Colorado voters could decide which party controls House

More consequentially for the country, Colorado voters could shape the contours of the U.S. Congress, where Republicans hold a slim majority in the House and Democrats control the Senate heading into the election.

All eyes are trained on Colorado’s 8th Congressional District, which stretches from the Adams County suburbs on the north side of Denver up to Greeley. The closely divided district is home to one of the most competitive — and expensive — House races in the country.

Expect a close fight in the district.  

After winning the newly created seat in 2022 by just over 1,600 votes, Democrat Yadira Caraveo, a pediatrician, is facing a challenge from state Rep. Gabe Evans, R-Fort Lupton, an Army veteran and former police officer.

The contest is the only Colorado race rated as a toss-up by national election analysts, and scant polling in the district has indicated it’s a dead-even race. A poll released in early October showed the candidates tied at 44% apiece, while a survey conducted by the same firm at the end of October found Caraveo with a slim lead over Evans, 48% to 46%, within the margin of error.

Both sides have spent heavily, hammering the other party’s nominee and pouring more than $20 million into a near-constant barrage of mostly negative TV and digital ads and mailers.

Political experts say keep an eye on 3rd CD

Political observers are also paying close attention to the GOP-leaning 3rd Congressional District, where Democrat Adam Frisch is making a second run after nearly unseating Republican U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert two years ago,. Frisch is facing first-time candidate Jeff Hurd instead of Boebert, who moved across the state to a safer district at the beginning of the year.

Once Boebert departed, the Republican primary swelled. Hurd ultimately won his party’s nomination in June.

Covering most of the Western Slope and parts of Southern Colorado, including Pueblo County and the San Luis Valley, the 3rd CD has leaned to the right and been represented by Republicans since 2011. National election forecasters called the seat a tossup when Boebert was in the district but moved it back into the GOP column after she jumped to the solidly Republican 4th Congressional District, where she faces a well-funded challenge from Democrat Trisha Calvarese. 

Dick Wadhams, a Republican strategist and former state GOP chairman, said he believes the race in the 3rd CD will be “closer than it should (be) because Frisch raised so much money when he was presumably running against Boebert.”

“Ultimately, Hurd will win,” Wadhams predicted.

Ian Silverii, a veteran Democratic strategist, said he also views the 3rd CD race as a “true tossup, though it shouldn’t be.”

“Adam Frisch’s incredible campaign has just been swamping Jeff Hurd’s, so I think Adam will pull it off this time and Democrats will send six of eight of our congressional delegates as Democrats to Washington, DC.,” Silverii said.

Michael Dino, a political expert who served as campaign manager for former Mayor Wellington Webb, said Vice President Kamala Harris’ margin of victory in Colorado — many expect her to easily carry Colorado — will be important to the outcome in the 8th CD and perhaps even in the 3rd CD.

“The higher the margin, 15% or above, and the better chance Dems are successful in these congressional districts,” Dino said. 

Will voters fundamentally alter Colorado’s election process?

Also on Tuesday, Colorado voters will decide whether to upend its election process by approving a free-for-all jungle primary and ranked-choice voting, which involves voters selecting candidates by order of preference.

If approved, the ballot initiative — dubbed Proposition 131 — would abolish the state’s current primary election system, which lets voters pick nominees for the state’s major political parties. In its place, there would be an all-candidate primary, in which the top four vote-getters, regardless of party affiliation, will move on to the general election.

“The biggest story tomorrow night beyond the 8th CD will be the outcome of Proposition 131, which will fundamentally change our political process if it passes,” Wadhams said. 

Jim Carpenter, a Democratic consultant who served as chief of staff to Gov. Bill Ritter and state director for U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar, said what voters decide on Proposition 131 would mean a major change going forward for Colorado.

“Coloradans have tended to vote for reform even when we don’t appreciate the implications,” Carpenter said.

Will voters hand Democrats a supermajority? 

Like Carpenter, Wadhams sees Harris’ margin of victory over Trump in Colorado as potentially having a tangible impact on whether Democrats will gain supermajority control of the Colorado General Assembly. 

“If she is in double digits, 10 or more, it will help Democrats like it did in 2018 and 2022, when Democrats built these huge majorities,” Wadhams said. “If Trump can keep it in single digits, it might negate the Harris influence.”

Democrats already hold a supermajority in the state House, and now they’re chasing their 24th vote in the Colorado Senate, where they have a 23-12 advantage.

That 24th vote would give Democrats the first supermajority — with two-thirds majorities in both chambers of the Colorado General Assembly — in state history.

With that supermajority, Democrats could send constitutional amendments to voters without a single Republican vote. They could override gubernatorial vetoes, which Democratic Gov. Jared Polis has not been shy in handing out over the last six years.

While in theory a supermajority would give Democrats the power to override a veto, it remains to be seen whether they would actually exercise that power and effectively embarrass their party mate at the top of the ticket.

“If Republicans are able to sustain at least 12 votes in the state Senate, it will deny Democrats a supermajority,” Wadhams said. “If Republicans can somehow win three more seats in the House going from 19 to 22, they will end the Democratic supermajority, which would be a huge victory.”

Will voters spend more money?

Political observers are also closely watching what voters decide on questions of “de-Brucing,” school bonding and tax hikes in the metro area.

Under Colorado’s Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, voters may allow their respective governments to “de-Bruce” — that is, permit a county, municipality, or school district to eliminate TABOR’s revenue limit and use all the taxes it has collected for spending priorities. The phrase references the constitutional amendment’s author, Douglas Bruce.

In Jefferson County, officials are asking voters, for the third time in five years, to de-Bruce. The county’s voters rejected the idea twice, in 2019 and 2022.

In Denver, the Denver Public Schools Board of Education is asking voters to support a $975 million bond package, which represents the largest amount the district has ever asked the public to pass.

“One theme that could emerge, if they fail, is that voters don’t want to spend more money right now,” Carpenter said. “If Denver defeats a tax and school funding issues don’t pass, that could signal some fiscal moderation. We’ll just have to see.” 

He added: “And, of course, Wednesday will be the official kick off of the 2026 election, with gubernatorial speculation leading the way!”

Colorado Politics Editor Thelma Grimes and reporters Marianne Goodland, Nico Brambila and Deborah Smith contributed to this article.