Voters rejected a proposed ballot measure that would have banned the hunting of mountain lions, bobcats and lynx in Colorado, according to the Associated Press.

AP News called the race at 8:30 a.m. Wednesday. 

About 56% of votes counted were against the proposal and about 45% were in favor as of 8:50 a.m. The unofficial vote count showed the proposal lagging by more than 260,000 votes. Most counties in the state rejected the measure, aside from a few on the Front Range and in the southwest corner of the state.

In two Front Range counties, Arapahoe and Broomfield, the measure was only narrowly approved, according to the Secretary of State’s Office. The measure was approved by at least 15 percentage points in Denver and Boulder counties.

San Miguel and San Juan counties, both sparsely populated, also approved the measure. 

The proposal would have made hunting all three cats a Class 1 misdemeanor, punishable by up to a year in jail, a fine of up to $1,000, or both. Exceptions would have been made for cats endangering the lives of people or livestock and for certain accidental deaths. 

On average, Colorado Parks and Wildlife reports that 505 mountain lions have been hunted annually over the past three years. During that same period, about 880 bobcats, classified as a “furbearer” species in Colorado, have been hunted annually.

Lynx are listed as endangered in Colorado and threatened in the Federal Endangered Species Act, so they are illegal to hunt in the state. The ballot initiative would have preserved the hunting ban should the species ever be delisted on a state or federal level. 

Cats Aren’t Trophies, the citizen group that petitioned to get Proposition 127 on the ballot, ran a campaign arguing that the current hunting methods for these wild cats is cruel, unethical, recreational and not necessary to successfully manage the species. 

Opponents argued that the initiative undermined the authority of Colorado Parks and Wildlife and its scientific management of the species, which includes hunting.

Cats Aren’t Trophies, the committee supporting Proposition 127, raised $3 million while its opponent, Colorado’s Wildlife Deserve Better, raised $1.9 million. The Western Heritage Conservation Alliance, another group opposing the measure, had amassed $1.6 million as of Oct. 28. 

Reporter Ali Longwell contributed to this reporting.