Maine voters OK same-sex marriage

Maine residents on Tuesday approved same-sex marriage, giving the gay-rights movement a breakthrough victory.

Gay marriage is legal in six states and Washington D.C., but those laws were either enacted by lawmakers or through court rulings. In popular votes, more than 30 states had previously held elections on same-sex marriage, with all losing.

Maine, Maryland and Washington state held up-or-down votes Tuesday on legalizing gay marriage. Minnesota voted on a proposal to ban gay marriage in the state constitution.

Incomplete returns showed close contests in Maryland and Minnesota. Vote counting started later in Washington.

Marijuana legalization was on the ballot in Washington, Oregon and Colorado; each measure would allow adults to possess small amounts of pot under a regimen of state regulation and taxation. The Colorado measure was leading in early returns.

If approved, the measures would set up a direct challenge to federal drug law.

In Massachusetts, voters approved a measure to allow marijuana use for medical reasons, joining 17 other states. Arkansas voters were deciding on a similar measure that would make it the first Southern state in that group.

In California, voters were deciding whether to repeal the state's death penalty. If the measure prevailed, the more than 720 inmates on death row there would have their sentences converted to life in prison.

In all, there were 176 measures on the ballots Tuesday in 38 states, according to the Initiative and Referendum Institute at the University of Southern California.

Maine's referendum on same-sex marriage marked the first time that gay-rights supporters put the issue to a popular vote. They collected enough signatures over the summer to schedule the vote, which reversed the outcome of a 2009 referendum that quashed a gay-marriage law enacted by the legislature.

In both Maryland and Washington, gay-marriage laws were approved by lawmakers and signed by the governors earlier this year, but opponents gathered enough signatures to challenge the laws.

In Minnesota, the question was whether the state would join 30 others in placing a ban on gay marriage in its constitution. Even if the ban is defeated, same-sex marriage would remain illegal in Minnesota under statute.

Gay marriage is legal in six states and the District of Columbia - in each case the result of legislation or court orders, not by a vote of the people.

Other notable ballot measures:

Maryland voters approved a measure allowing illegal immigrants to pay in-state college tuition, provided they attended a state high school for three years and can show they filed state income tax returns during that time. About a dozen other states have similar laws, but Maryland's is the first to be approved by voters.

In Oklahoma, voters approved a Republican-backed measure that wipes out all affirmative action programs in state government hiring, education, and contracting practices. Similar steps have been taken previously in Arizona, California, Michigan, Nebraska, and Washington.

Florida voters rejected a proposal that would have banned government mandates for obtaining insurance such as required by President Obama's health-care law.