Massachusetts voters defeated question 1 today, ending the quest to abolish the state income tax. The A.P. called the election at 8:45 p.m., according to Boston.com. From Boston.com

The Coalition for Our Communities, which led the opposition to Question 1, outspent the question’s sponsors by a roughly 10-to-1 margin. That enabled them to pay for a flurry of TV ads and a sophisticated voter ID effort to identify likely and swing voters. Among other tactics, they sent full-color, personalized mailers that incorporated a voter’s name and community into the images and warned of specific local cuts.

That spending dovetailed with a network of community activists worried about cuts to schools, health centers, public safety, and other programs. In Dorchester and Mattapan alone, more than 100 volunteers from several local nonprofits offered rides to the polls and handed out thousands of No-on-1 palm cards — “It’s a reckless idea. . . . Times are hard enough. Let’s not make them worse” — to voters waiting to enter urban precincts.

“We know how important Question 1 is to many services that are important to working families across the state,” said Cortina Vann, a community organizer with the Dorchester-based Massachusetts Affordable Housing Alliance, where a classroom normally used for a low- and moderate-income homebuyer course had been coverted into a “war room,” the walls covered with charts detailing precinct locations and volunteer schedules.

On the other side, the question’s proponents, the Committee for Small Government, invested a large share of their limited resources — about $431,000 raised through mid-October — early in the campaign, on the signature drive to get the question on the ballot.

The question was defeated handily, with the Globe reporting that margin at 70%-30% against the question.

Ballot question 2, calling for decriminalizing marijuana in amounts under one ounce, also passed statewide by a margin of 65% to 35%, according to the Globe.

Ballot question 3, calling for the abolition of dog racing in the state, passed by a 56% to 44% margin.

I was not totally suprised by any of the three question results, but I am somewhat shocked at those listed margins. Are these results in line with your expectations?