Same-sex couples in California are again not allowed to marry, as election results for Proposition 8 came in Wednesday showing that voters passed the gay marriage ban in Tuesday’s election.

With 96 percent of votes in the state counted, 52 percent of California voters backed the gay marriage ban while 48 percent opposed it.

As SF State students flocked to the polls Tuesday, a good number of them—approximately 60 percent, according to a survey conducted by the [X]press—said that they thought Proposition 8 was the most important issue on the ballot.

Now that the proposition has passed, many students that voted no are dismayed by the outcome.

“It’s sad that [Proposition 8] is going to pass,” said junior Patrick Haugen, who had voted no on the ban. “It’s ironic, given the historical milestone made with Obama winning the presidency and at the same time having a seemly archaic outcome for this proposition.”

Leah Thompson, another student and “No on 8” voter, agreed: “That sucks. I think same-sex couples should have the right to marry.”

The election results came as a surprise to voters in San Francisco County, who mostly voted no on Prop 8, having only 23.5 percent voting yes. Other Bay Area counties with the majority voting no include Santa Cruz, Marin and Sonoma.

“I wasn’t aware the vote was going in the [“yes”] direction,” Thompson said.

Many students leaving the on-campus polling center at Mary Ward Hall said that they had voted no on the proposition titled “Eliminates Rights of Same-Sex Couples to Marry.”

“Overwhelmingly, students are with us against [Proposition] 8,” said Jessie Raeder, Northern California organizer for the Feminist Majority Foundation, which is affiliated with the “No on 4 and 8” campaign.

Raeder was one of several “No on 4 and 8” campaign members who stood by the pathway leading to Mary Ward Hall, carrying signs and handing out stickers to student voters walking past.

“There’s been a vast amount of students giving thumbs-up signs,” Raeder said, adding that SF State is “mostly a pro-choice, pro-equality campus.”

Freshman Karen Ithinavong was one of those students. “Everyone should be treated equally,” she said. “No one should stop anyone from marrying who they love.”

But even in a predominantly anti-Proposition 8 campus, a few students still voted yes and afterwards celebrated the passage of the ban.

Kidman Tsoi was one of the students who supported Proposition 8. He said he was happy that it passed.

“I don’t think that human rights is about people doing whatever they want to do,” he said. “Family values are one of the most important things in my life, and those values include marriage [being] just about one man and one woman.”

Another Proposition 8 supporter, sophomore Doug Lee, said that he still voted yes even if he knows he is part of the minority on campus.

“I don’t want to deny someone their right to be with who they care about,” Lee said. “But I feel I need to stick to my principles when it comes to what God intended for a man and woman in marriage.”

In other parts of the state, many voters seemed to have shared similar sentiments. Most of Central Valley and Southern California backed the proposition, with Kern, Riverside and San Bernardino counties overwhelmingly in favor of the ban.

In the northern region of the state, the proposition also drew strong support from voters in counties like Modoc, Tehama and Shasta.

But those who opposed Proposition 8 have expressed hopes that things can still change in favor of gay marriage.

“They should still keep trying and keep working on getting rights for same-sex couples,” Thompson said.