Col­orado Democ­rats made fur­ther inroads in Tuesday’s elec­tion toward turn­ing the state a deep­er shade of blue, win­ning vot­ers’ approval on sev­er­al big pol­i­cy ques­tions while flip­ping more local sub­ur­ban Den­ver offices held by Republicans.

But while Col­orado vot­ers leaned left to cre­ate a paid fam­i­ly and med­ical leave pro­gram, they stayed true to their fis­cal con­ser­vatism in oth­er deci­sions. They approved a small income tax cut and were favor­ing, by a small mar­gin, a mea­sure that aims to put more fis­cal hand­cuffs on offi­cials by requir­ing vot­er approval for large new fees, as is already required for tax increas­es under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.

On the whole, vot­ers went big for the Democ­rats — even more so than in 2016 — and built on gains they made in the 2018 elec­tion, when sub­ur­ban vot­ers flipped sev­er­al low­er-pro­file coun­ty offices long held by Republicans.

In Tuesday’s elec­tion, vot­ers backed for­mer Vice Pres­i­dent Joe Biden for the White House and sent for­mer Gov. John Hick­en­loop­er to the U.S. Sen­ate. He oust­ed Repub­li­can Sen.  Cory Gard­ner, lead­ing by more than 10 per­cent­age points as of 11:30 p.m. Biden’s mar­gin over Pres­i­dent Don­ald Trump was more than 14 per­cent­age points, expand­ing Hillary Clinton’s 5‑point mar­gin over Trump four years ago.

Still, the nation­al pres­i­den­tial out­come was unclear late in the evening. And those mar­gins for Biden and Hick­en­loop­er could tight­en a bit as more bal­lots are count­ed in Col­orado, espe­cial­ly since Repub­li­cans were more like­ly to vote on Elec­tion Day.

The elec­tion brought high vot­er turnout — high­er than any elec­tion in Col­orado going back at least two decades, if not even longer. About 3.1 mil­lion bal­lots were returned through 5 p.m. Tues­day, two hours before polls closed, accord­ing to the Col­orado sec­re­tary of state’s office. That amounts to near­ly 75% of reg­is­tered vot­ers, and it will rise as final bal­lots are processed in the com­ing days. The Asso­ci­at­ed Press’s pro­jec­tions fac­tored in an expect­ed turnout that would amount to well over 80% of reg­is­tered vot­ers in Colorado.

Vot­ers approved a tax on tobac­co and vap­ing prod­ucts and, in a big win for state and local offi­cials, a repeal of the Gal­lagher Amend­ment. That 1982 mea­sure com­pli­cates prop­er­ty tax­es and gov­ern­ment bud­gets by lim­it­ing the pro­por­tion of tax­es that can be assessed on res­i­den­tial prop­er­ties in rela­tion to com­mer­cial prop­er­ties. Vot­ers also reject­ed a late-term abor­tion ban by a large mar­gin. A ref­er­en­dum on whether to join the nation­al pop­u­lar vote inter­state com­pact, was too close to call late Tues­day but was lean­ing toward passing.

The clos­est statewide bal­lot mea­sure was Propo­si­tion 114, which would require the rein­tro­duc­tion of gray wolves in west­ern Col­orado. It was lead­ing slight­ly with 50.1% sup­port as of 11:30 p.m.

Democ­rats were poised to take con­trol of the Uni­ver­si­ty of Colorado’s Board of Regents from Repub­li­cans. And they made fur­ther inroads in at least two sub­ur­ban Den­ver counties.

In Jef­fer­son Coun­ty, Repub­li­can Com­mis­sion­er Lib­by Szabo trailed Demo­c­ra­t­ic chal­lenger Tra­cy Kraft-Tharp, a term-lim­it­ed state rep­re­sen­ta­tive, by a large mar­gin. In Ara­pa­hoe Coun­ty, at least one com­mis­sion­er seat was flipped from Repub­li­can to Demo­c­rat, as chal­lenger Car­rie War­ren-Gul­ly defeat­ed incum­bent Kath­leen Con­ti. Anoth­er flip was pos­si­ble in a sec­ond race in which Demo­c­rat Idris Kei­th was lead­ing Com­mis­sion­er Jeff Bak­er by a tighter mar­gin.

In the open 18th Judi­cial Dis­trict dis­trict attorney’s race, anoth­er blue flip was pos­si­ble, though much more ten­ta­tive. Demo­c­rat Amy Pad­den was nar­row­ly lead­ing Repub­li­can John Kell­ner, 50.1% to 49.9%, with 83% of expect­ed results in. The win­ner will suc­ceed Repub­li­can George Brauch­ler in the office, which includes Dou­glas and Ara­pa­hoe counties.

Vot­ers across the metro area came out Tues­day under par­tial­ly cloudy skies and mild tem­per­a­tures to drop off their bal­lots and cast their votes in per­son, fol­low­ing heavy returns of mail bal­lots in the pre­vi­ous few weeks.

Riley Hig­gins and Ryan Jett walked their dog as they dropped off their bal­lots in Sun­ny­side on Tues­day morn­ing. They vot­ed for Biden, they said, due to a belief that that the for­mer vice pres­i­dent, along with a Demo­c­ra­t­ic Con­gress, will make bet­ter deci­sions to curb the nov­el coro­n­avirus pandemic.

They also vot­ed yes on allow­ing pit bulls in Den­ver “because if you train them, they’re safe,” Jett said.

In Cas­tle Rock, Nani­ta Marks­ber­ry said she vot­ed a straight GOP ticket.

“I may not love Trump, but I love his poli­cies,” she said. As a born-again believ­er, Marks­ber­ry said abor­tion was impor­tant to her as she described her vote for Propo­si­tion 115, the late-term abor­tion ban that failed.

“The Demo­c­ra­t­ic Par­ty wants to take God out of their plat­form,” she said.