The Rocky Mountain Collegian

Editor note: This is a combination of two AP articles, the background information from yesterday's article mixed with most recent AP updates on votes

DENVER (AP) _ The election on whether to ban state affirmative action in Colorado remains tight with 95 percent of the votes counted.

"No" votes were leading 51-49 percent on Thursday, two days after the election. That's a difference of about 23,000 votes out of more than 2 million cast.

Amendment 46 would amend the Colorado constitution to say that the state may not use race, color, sex, ethnicity or national origin to discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to individuals or groups.

It doesn't specifically mention affirmative action.

Nebraska passed a similar ban on race- and gender-based affirmative action programs with 58 percent of the vote Tuesday.

Both measures were backed by Ward Connerly, a former University of California regent who has helped pass similar proposals in California, Michigan and Washington State.

The Colorado measure would amend the state constitution to say that the state may not discriminate against or grant preferential treatment to individuals or groups based on race, color, sex, ethnicity or national origin.

Backers of Amendment 46 promoted it as a civil rights initiative. They said it would return to the language of the 1964 Civil Rights Act by banning all kinds of discrimination, and they pointed to Barack Obama's election as evidence the nation is moving away from the need for race- and gender-based preferences.

No matter the outcome, pro-amendment campaign leader Jessica Corry said the nearly 1 million votes the measure picked up in Colorado sent an important message.

"We're optimistic either way and that America is moving into a post-racial era where we see people as individuals and not as members of a group," said Corry, a public policy analyst for the Independence Institute, a Colorado think tank.

Melissa Hart, a University of Colorado law professor who led the fight against the amendment, said Obama's success was built on the nation's commitment to equal opportunity and that there is no reason to dismantle it.

Hart said one reason the Colorado race was so much tighter than Nebraska's was the "thousands of hours" opponents spent going door-to-door.

"It takes a lot of people talking to a lot of other people to get that truth out and that's what we had in Colorado," she said.

Corry blamed voter fatigue. Most of the 13 other Colorado ballot measures were also in trouble.

Hart insisted that many "Yes" voters didn't realize the initiative would ban affirmative action - but that a sizable number did know they were rejecting such programs. She also said many voters wrongly believe that affirmative action includes hiring unqualified people and using quotas, which have been ruled unconstitutional.

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