Colorado voters are set to weigh in on ballot questions related to abortion rights, veterinary services, mountain lion trophy hunting and an overhaul of the state’s election system in November.

The deadline to finalize the state’s ballot is coming Friday, but all of the citizen initiatives — meaning ballot questions pursued by members of the public, rather than the legislature — were finalized late last week. State election officials certified that the final ones had received enough petition signatures after clearing earlier regulatory hurdles.

Nine ballot measures from the public have been approved. But two of those — the property tax-related initiatives 50 and 108 — are both set to be withdrawn by sponsors as part of negotiations with the governor’s office and the state legislature, which on Thursday passed another property tax relief bill at the end of a special session.

Read the rest of this story on TheKnow.DenverPost.com.

A group backed by a wealthy Denverite who’s trying to overhaul Colorado’s election system dropped $1 million on more than a dozen statehouse races just days before a hotly contested primary Election Day, pumping another huge sum of cash into contests already awash in outside spending and dark money.

Let Colorado Vote Action was registered with the Colorado Secretary of State on Monday, eight days before Election Day. By Wednesday, it had doled out between $20,000 and $150,000 to support eight Democrats and five Republicans running in contested primaries. Much of the $1.08 million in total funds went to several races that have already seen significant outside spending from organizations boosting more moderate candidates.

The group is backed by Kent Thiry, the Denver-based former CEO of the dialysis giant DaVita who’s supporting a ballot measure to overhaul the state’s election process. In a statement to The Denver Post on Saturday morning, Thiry wrote that it was “time for many of us to stand up for the majority in the middle. We are supporting responsible candidates in each party who believe in civil and bipartisan behavior, and who believe they represent all the voters in their districts.”

Read the rest of this story on TheKnow.DenverPost.com.

Nearly $1 million — mostly from a group supporting charter schools — has poured into the Democratic primary for a seat on the Colorado State Board of Education, a race that some observers say could play a role in the future of charters in the state.

But the two candidates vying to represent the 2nd Congressional District dispute that Tuesday’s primary, whatever the result, will alter the fate of charter schools. They each said in interviews that they support school choice, a system in which charters — public schools that have more autonomy than traditional, district-run schools — play an integral part.

“I believe this is a false narrative,” said Marisol Lynda Rodriguez, an education consultant new to politics with a background in charter schools.

Read the rest of this story on TheKnow.DenverPost.com.