enlarge Gordon Chibroski/Staff Photographer

Casinos No! colleagues Dennis Bailey and Phil Harriman check early returns on their laptops at the Falmouth office of Lebel and Harriman on Tuesday.

enlarge John Ewing/Staff Photographer

Passamaquoddy tribal members Stan Meader, left, and Justin Lola, standing, join Ken Fredette, a consultant working with the tribe, in watching election results come in via the Internet at the Calais Motor Inn on Tuesday.

Question 1 would have paved the way for a tribal slots parlor at a racetrack to be built in Calais, adding the state’s second racino. Bangor now has the lone slots parlor, established after Maine voters authorized limited slot-machine gambling at harness-racing tracks four years ago.

With 83 percent of Maine’s 624 precincts reporting, the “no” camp retained the lead that it had developed as soon as early returns began trickling in, with 52 percent opposing the racino and 48 percent supporting it.

That prompted Gov. Richard Doyle of the tribe’s Pleasant Point reservation to concede defeat shortly before midnight, saying racino supporters were “very disappointed” by the outcome. “We weren’t able to overcome the deficit” in votes as late tallies came in, Doyle said. “Some of the counties we thought we had in our column, like Aroostook and Penobscot, didn’t come through.”

Dennis Bailey of Casinos No! was not immediately available for comment on the concession, but Bailey had been optimistic throughout the night Tuesday as the returns came in.

Also Tuesday, voters approved one of three statewide bond issues that would borrow $134 million, plus interest, for a range of economic-development, educational and natural-resource projects. The results on two other bond issues were too close to call at press time.

Voters overwhelmingly rejected a fifth statewide question that would have extended term limits for state legislators from four to six consecutive terms.

Thanks in part to Tuesday’s rainy weather and brisk winds, turnout was low to moderate across much of southern Maine, even for an off-year election, according to several city and town clerks.

But some said absentee voting was lower than normal as well, so the weather was only one factor in an election that failed to resonate with many voters.

“It’s been kind of a slow, steady day,” said South Portland City Clerk Susan Mooney.

“People just don’t go out (to vote) in weather like this,” said Linda Cohen, city clerk in Portland. The only racino currently authorized by Maine law is Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Slots facility in Bangor, which is housed in temporary quarters while its permanent home is under construction.

That racino grew out of 2003 referendums in which voters approved slots at existing harness tracks, with local approval, while rejecting plans for a tribal casino in southern Maine. Backers of Question 1 had hoped that voters would support a new racino, now that Hollywood Slots is operating. But as the returns came in against the ballot question, some supporters in Calais speculated that it might have been too soon to ask voters for an expansion in legalized gambling in Maine.

In addition to allowing a second racino in Maine, Question 1 on Tuesday’s ballot would have doubled the permitted number of slot machines in the state from 1,500 to 3,000, with a maximum of 1,500 at each facility.

Tribal leaders had said they planned to start with 400 to 500 slot machines, although it remained unclear how close they would have come to the 1,500-machine limit over time. They said Tuesday night they had an option on 700 acres of land in Calais, but they had yet to design the racino or line up investors. If the Calais racino had been approved and it went online by April 2009, legislative fiscal experts projected that it would have pulled in $245 million in the fiscal year starting July 1, 2009. Of that total, $228.4 million would have been paid out to winning players and $2.4 million would have gone to the state for administration, according to the state’s calculations.

That would have left net revenue of $14 million, $5.7 million of which would have gone to the state for various programs. Although the racino referendum was one of five questions on the...