A citizen-driven effort to force a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing in Loveland has been narrowly defeated, according to unofficial election results released Tuesday night.

According to City Clerk Terry Andrews, 20,807 votes were cast in the special election. Of those, 9,942 were votes in favor of the moratorium, 10,844 were in opposition, or about 48 percent in favor, 52 percent against. The 21-vote differential between votes cast and the final tally was not explained.

About 45,000 ballots were mailed out in the first city-run election since the early 1990s. Election judges counted votes until about 10 p.m. on Tuesday, following a rush of more than 3,100 voters who dropped off ballots on Election Day.

Question No. 1 asked voters whether to impose a two-year moratorium on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, to fully study the impacts on property values and human health.

Citing unanswered questions associated with oil and gas development moving into Loveland, the advocacy group Protect Our Loveland began circulating petitions last year to let Loveland residents decide whether or not to pull the brakes on potential fracking within city limits.

More than 3,000 people signed petitions to get the measure on the ballot, though it took months of debate and legal snafus for an election to be set.

In the past year, group members were often at odds with the majority of the Loveland City Council. Even once the measure was on the ballot, some councilors — including Mayor Pro Tem Dave Clark — continued to lobby against the moratorium and stood with its opponents.

Protect Our Loveland said throughout the campaign that the city would not be responsible for conducting its own study, but the “to fully study” language was left undefined.

Protect Our Loveland organizer Sharon Carlisle did not return calls for comment on Tuesday.

Members of the Loveland Energy Action Project, the issue committee that formed last year opposition to the ballot measure, met Tuesday night at their headquarters in a storefront in the Marketplace at Centerra.

LEAP director and former state representative B.J. Nikkel said the group was upbeat on Election Day, having received positive response while canvassing.

“I think that it’s an important issue for people in this town for a lot of different reasons,” Nikkel said. “From our viewpoint, it’s because people are concerned about jobs.”

LEAP spent hundreds of thousands of dollars to fight the measure. The Colorado Oil and Gas Association poured about $400,000 into the race with contributions to LEAP, according to campaign finance reports.

Protect Our Loveland ran its campaign with only a fraction of the dollars, reports show.

The city of Loveland has a regulatory system in place for oil and gas producers who want to drill in city limits, and while city officials expect an application to drill in east Loveland, there are no active applications.

Contact Reporter-Herald Staff Writer Jessica Maher at 970-669-5050 or maherj@reporter-herald.com. Follow her at Twitter.com/JessicaMaherRH.