It's been a steady few years of incessant complaining about government and all the things government fails to do well for its citizens. Now we're heading into an election in which very few people will take time to vote.

Under state law, registered voters who did not participate in the 2010 election have been listed as inactive and will not receive a mail ballot for the Nov. 1 election unless they contact the county clerk and recorder's office at vote@bouldercountyvotes.

In many quarters, Xcel has been painted as the bad guy, the big corporate power that is antithetical to Boulder values like local control and speedy adoption of a variety of renewable energy sources. And so it followed, logically, that if Xcel was opposed to municipalization, well thats a good enough reason to vote for it.