Maine voters have rejected a ban on bear baiting, trapping and hounding for the second time in 10 years. With almost half of precincts reporting by deadline, “no” votes on Question 1 had secured an insurmountable lead of almost 20,000 votes.

The outcome was apparent for most of election night, as the vote tally on Question 1 — which reads: “Do you want to ban the use of bait, dogs or traps in bear hunting except to protect property, public safety, or for research?” — leaned decidedly toward no.

A resounding margin in Portland for the “yes” side — a 9,000-vote margin — with results that arrived near 11 p.m. tightened the race slightly, but the resulting margin — according to a Bangor Daily News projection — was still too much for the “yes” side to overcome.

“We’ll take it,” said James Cote, manager for the No on 1 campaign.

For months, this controversial citizen initiative has stirred Mainers into a passionate debate over hunting practices. To answer this seemingly simple yes-or-no question, voters have turned to reasons concerning ethics, tradition, economy and science.

The group that led the pro-ban campaign, Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting, was almost entirely funded by the Humane Society of the United States, a Washington, D.C. organization that seeks to “eliminate the most inhumane and unfair sport hunting practices.”

Mainers for Fair Bear Hunting has spent months convincing Maine voters that hunting the state’s black bears using bait, dogs and traps is “cruel, unsporting and unnecessary.”

The opposition disagrees entirely, stating that baiting, trapping and hounding are hunting tools necessary to control Maine’s bear population, which state biologists predict is about 30,000 bears. In 2013, hunters using one of these three methods accounted for 93 percent of the bears harvested during Maine’s bear hunting season in the fall.