Statewide, voters also remained very closely divided on a $1-per-pack tax on cigarettes, which would be the first increase in the cigarette tax here in 14 years. Proceeds from the tax would not go to state coffers, but would instead finance cancer research.

The tax remained too close to call on Wednesday morning, according to The Associated Press, although opponents of the measure appeared to cling to a razor-thin lead with all precincts reporting.

Antismoking advocates, who promoted the tax as the best way to reduce smoking rates, were outspent nearly four to one. Their opponents, financed largely by the tobacco industry, spent almost $47 million in advertisements to defeat the measure.

Public employee unions, meanwhile, had fought hard against the two pension reform initiatives.

The San Diego Municipal Employees Association brought an unsuccessful legal challenge in an effort to keep the measure off the ballot, and union leaders said they would continue to challenge the new pension plan in court. The measure in San Jose will probably face a legal challenge as well.

Michael Zucchet, general manager of the union, said that it had already negotiated pension reforms with the city, and that the plan imposed by the ballot initiative would not save San Diego money. Its proponents, he said, were motivated largely by politics.