UPDATE: Maine Bans Gay Marriage

UPDATE: Maine has banned gay marriage. See updates.

The residents of Maine look likely to follow the lead of California and ban gay marriage with a ballot measure overturning legal gay marriage pulling to a bigger lead.

The Maine gay marriage vote asked Maine voters if they wanted to repeal a gay-marriage bill signed into law in May by Democratic Governor John Baldacci.

With 73% of all votes counted for the day (Maine voters voted for Governor and a variety of ballot measures), the Yes to Proposition 1 vote (ban gay marriage) was ahead 51.86% to 48.14%, a gap of over 16,000 votes.

Local media outlets are calling the vote as too close to call, however the trend has sided away from the No vote, which earlier lead the evening by a small margin.

Update: the gap widened again at 74% of the count to 51.93% yes.

Update 2: at 76% the gap is out to 52.13%.

Update 3: at 80% counted, yes is up to 52.47%. My maths might be rusty, but that’s nearly a neat 5% gap now. Sadly, yes looks like it will win.

Update 4: at 87% counted, yes is up 52.75%. It would be a miracle now for that lead to turn around.

Update 5: AP and local media now confirm that gay marriage is banned in Maine, as we’ve been reporting for nearly 2 hours. A sad day that even Maine won’t extend equality.