Voters in Washington narrowly rejected a referendum on Tuesday that would have instituted a statewide affirmative action program for employment.

Referendum 88 would have enacted I-1000, deemed the “Washington state diversity, equity, and inclusion act.” The act was the state legislature’s second attempt in the last two decades to enactment an equal opportunity employment program and was rejected by approximately 52 percent of the votes cast.

The Initiative would have established a governor’s “commission on diversity, equity, and inclusion” and was aimed at providing underrepresented individuals and groups with increased employment opportunities. It would have allowed employers to consider an applicant’s “race, sex, ethnicity, national origin, age, the presence of any sensory, mental, or physical disability, and honorably discharged veteran or military status” as factors when making hiring decisions.

Opponents to the measure lauded its rejection, equivocating it to “discrimination” and “the restoration of racial quotas and preferences.” However, the Title and Intent sections of the Initiative did explicitly state that the ways to accomplish “equal opportunity” was through “[r]estoring affirmative action into state law without the use of quotas or preferential treatment.”