Independent voters

Candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties get most of the votes and the attention, but dozens of independent and third-party candidates will be running for offices up and down the ballot in Colorado this fall.

Democratic and Republican candidates collecting signatures to make their party’s primary ballot can only collect signatures from voters in their party. With unaffiliated voters now making up half of the statewide electorate, partisans are harder to find.

When Club 20 holds its gubernatorial debate on Sept. 8, just one of the major candidates will be there: Republican Walker Stapleton. That's triggered a…