Election Day ended with the majority of voters approving Question 1 on Maine’s ballot Tuesday Nov. 3 with 52.81 percent of Mainers choosing “yes.”

“We won’t quit because we had an army of volunteers and families,” said Jesse Connolly, campaign manager of Protect Maine Equality. “We won’t quit because of the thousands of Mainers who gave us a volunteer shift or talked to their neighbor or told their brother to get off the couch and go pull the lever for No on 1.”

A few couples cried and comforted each other as the event ended.

Tuesday ended with the Yes on 1 campaign in the lead with more votes than their opponents. Stand for Marriage Maine declared victory around 12:30 a.m. Wednesday. The No on 1 campaign held its Election Day party at the Holiday Inn in Portland, where hundreds of people crowded a room to watch live updates of the election results.

Libby Mitchell, president of the state Senate, said early during the party, “We will win today, and even if we don’t, we will win tomorrow.”

Connolly said the Election Day results are not the end for the Equality Maine campaign.

“We have something to say to our opponents who would demean and attack our schools or our families: It must stop. It has to stop,” Connolly said. “We will be here. We will be fighting. We will be working. We will regroup.”

Most of the day, the crowd in Portland was upbeat and cheered whenever live updates containing more “no” votes for Question 1 appeared on the two projection screens in the room. The results from Brewer, which voted “yes” on Question 1, received a collective sigh from the crowd.

Mary Bonauto, from the Gay and Lesbian Advocates and Defenders, said early in the event: “When so many can put themselves into the shoes of their gay and lesbian neighbors, as is happening here in Maine, then the future is bright.”

The No on 1 campaign event was broadcast live with national coverage, including the Rachel Maddow show.

Shenna Bellows, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, said early in the event, “We have made a difference for Maine.”

U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree said, “The state of Maine is going to do the right thing.”

Legislative Rep. Hannah Pingree, D-North Haven, said the debate concerning same-sex marriage in the Legislature during the spring was one of the most important and serious debates she has attended in the state Legislature.

“This is about Maine values. This is the most extraordinary campaign I’ve ever been a part of,” Mitchell said. “It’s right to respect your neighbors and treat them with dignity.”

“What happened in this campaign shows what committed people can do,” Mitchell said early in the event.

Mayor of Portland Jill Duson spoke to the crowd and asked Portland voters to raise their hands — and most of the hands in the room shot into the air. Then she asked everyone to turn to the person next to them and give them a hug.

“We love those public displays of affection,” Duson said.

Duson announced Portland’s voting numbers: 7,248 for yes, and 19,975 for no. The no number was greeted with a thunderous round of applause.

Darlene Huntress from Protect Maine Equality said, “I know that over the last seven years … the people got that absolutely nothing, nothing takes the place of full equality. Nothing.”

Terry Guerette and Tamiko Davies, from Portland, who became partners 10 years ago, said they were uncertain their families would accept their relationship, but they held a ceremony anyway. Davies said Guerette’s mother, though initially disapproving, eventually wrote a letter to the Lewiston Sun Journal endorsing same-sex marriage. Davies said their son asked them what would happen to their family if Question 1 passed.

“We assured him, no matter what, they can’t take away the love of our family,” Davies said.

Jim Bishop and Stephen Ryan, from Bar Mills, said they have been life partners for 34 years. Ryan said marriage was as fundamental to him as breathing or eating.

“We’ve got each other, we’ve got love and we will prevail,” Ryan said.

Mark Sullivan, spokesman for Protect Maine Equality, said the No on 1 campaign “will not stop until they have achieved their goal.”

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Yes on 1 had 52.81 percent of the vote and No on 1 had 47.19 percent.

Yes on 1 declared victory shortly after midnight, when it became apparent No on 1 could not overtake its lead.

“What the people of Maine had to say is that marriage matters and that it’s between a man and a woman,” said Marc Mutty, chairman of Stand for Marriage Maine, in a speech.

“It has been the little guy against the big guy in terms of resources — human resources, financial resources — and we prevailed because the people of Maine, the silent majority, the folks back home, spoke with their vote tonight,” Mutty said.

Yes on 1 gathered at the Eastland Park Hotel in Portland and at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer; supporters of No on 1 gathered at the Holiday Inn in Portland. While a few dozen supporters attended the Yes on 1 party in Portland, several hundred attended the No on 1 party, which featured a live band and a disc jockey later in the night. Some supporters danced and drank, while others watched a live feed of the results in front of two large screens.

The Yes on 1 parties were linked by live video feeds, and the two locations competed several times to see who could chant “Yes on 1” the loudest.

Early results showed No on 1 in the lead by a wide margin, but as the night wore on and rural precincts started to report results, No on 1’s lead shrank steadily. Shortly before 10:30 p.m., Yes on 1 took the lead for the first time, to cheers from its supporters.

The No on 1 campaign did not concede immediately. Mark Sullivan, spokesperson for Protect Maine Equality, said shortly after midnight the campaign intended to continue to count the vote well into the day.

But around 2 a.m., No on 1 seemed to concede. In a statement on No on 1’s Web site, Jesse Connolly, campaign manager for Protect Maine Equality, thanked supporters and vowed to continue the fight for same-sex marriage.

“We’re in this for the long haul,” the statement said. “For next week, and next month, and next year — until all Maine families are treated equally. Because in the end, this has always been about love and family and that will always be something worth fighting for.”

Reverend Bob Emrich said in Yes on 1’s victory speech that the campaign was never about hating gay couples.

“There are some bridges that need to be built, some fences that need to be mended. We need to reach out to some people who may very well have been doing what they believed in. We disagreed with them very strongly, obviously, but we need to reach out to them,” Emrich said.

“The institution of marriage has been preserved in Maine and across this nation,” said Frank Shubert, Yes on 1’s campaign manager.

Schubert said polls had Yes on 1 up by about 6 percent going into Election Day, so he was confident throughout the day, even as early returns had No on 1 up.

Scott Fish, communications director for Stand for Marriage Maine, said Question 1 passed because voters got away from the spin and realized what was in the bill.

“I think they saw that whatever inequities there are in domestic partnerships — gay or straight — that they realized that these can be dealt with through lawmaking, that we don’t have to redefine marriage to do that, and when they realized that the pending bill would have redefined marriage they didn’t like it,” Fish said.

Supporters of Question 1 said they had no immediate plans for the future. Schubert said he did not think same-sex marriage was likely to come up again in the future.

“I think the other side will try and push it, but I don’t think the legislature or the governor is going to turn their back on what the people have decided,” Schubert said.

Maine was the 31st state to vote down same-sex marriage at polls; no states have approved gay marriage by popular vote.

Maine and Rhode Island are now the only states in New England where same-sex marriage is not legal. New Hampshire is set to start marrying same-sex couples in January.

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Dylan Riley contributed to this report.