Denver residents (some of them, anyway) should be receiving their ballots in the mail soon if they haven’t already seen them. When they do open those ballots, they’ll stare down at a field of candidates significantly lacking in options.

The May Denver election has been one of the most quiet in recent memory, with only two races that include any sort of competition.

You’d have thought that someone might challenge Denver Auditor Dennis Gallagher after it was revealed a few years back that he hadn’t been spending much time on the job. Gallagher does have an opponent – a guy by the name of Bill Wells – but judging from the picture in this story by the Rocky Mountain News, nobody really cares about what Wells has to say. Gallagher will cruise to re-election, as will Mayor John Hickenlooper. For the first time Denver will elect a City Clerk, but Stephanie O’Malley should win handily over Jacob Werther. The ballot is so devoid of discussion, in fact, that there is only one measure available to vote for – Referred Measure 1A, which would extend the term limits for the Denver District Attorney from two to three (in line with every other Denver elected official).

Five city council members are running unopposed, and only two open seats have seen much action: Districts 7 and 8. Julie Connor, Chris Nevitt and Shelly Waters are the main competitors in District 7, while Watson faces Sharon Bailey, Carla Madison and Greg Rasheed.

Most of the discussion involving the Denver election has been about the failures of the Denver Election Commission. The only interesting thing that has happened involving a candidate was in city council district 8, where Darrell Watson gave a bizarre explanation to an old accusation.

Maybe it’s nice to have an election that isn’t so heated after the busy 2006 season, but I’ll take last year over this Denver election any day of the week. Politics is normally good theater, but this show is boring.