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With Arizona voters likely rejecting a proposed constitutional ban on gay marriage by a razor-thin margin, opponents of the measure declared victory Wednesday while supporters pinned their hopes on several hundred thousand ballots yet to be counted.

With all precincts reporting, Proposition 107, the Protect Marriage Arizona initiative, was failing statewide by about 51 to 49 percent. Supporters, however, held out hope that the results could change because of about 341,000 ballots across the state that have yet to be counted, throwing a fog over the results.

It will take several more days for all of the ballots to be processed, said Deputy Secretary of State Kevin Tyne, who added that the department is updating results on its Web site, www.azsos.gov.

In Pima County, 55,000 to 60,000 ballots need to be counted, said Chris Roads, the county's registrar of voters. There are upwards of 250,000 ballots yet to be counted in Maricopa County.

Maricopa County officials say they can process about 50,000 early ballots a day. But there also are 37,000 provisional ballots — which include ballots submitted by people whose eligibility to vote could not be verified at the polls. Counting those ballots could take longer, meaning it could be next week before the results are final.

While Arizona state law already defines marriage as a union between one man and one woman, Prop. 107 seeks to amend the state Constitution to say so, which could stop government from recognizing civil unions and domestic partnerships.

Cathi Herrod, spokeswoman for Protect Marriage Arizona and president of the Center for Arizona Policy, said Wednesday she is not ready to concede.

"We realize it's a long shot," Herrod said, adding that she has seen scenarios showing that a high number of Republicans voting early could actually push the measure through.

Should the results hold, however, Arizona will be the first state to reject a state constitutional ban on gay marriage. Seven other states passed similar initiatives Tuesday night, bringing the total number of states with bans to 27.

Gay marriage has been used as a wedge issue to bring out conservative voters in recent elections. Considering its history as a conservative state that already has outlawed same-sex marriages, Arizona would seem to be an unlikely candidate to buck the trend of constitutional bans.

However, the initiative's opponents and state political experts said there were a number of reasons the measure appears to have been defeated, notably its assault on benefits, an electorate defined by independents, and its timing during an election marked by the war in Iraq and the immigration debate.

"It had nothing to do with gay marriage, and that's why it failed," said Bruce Merrill, a political scientist with Arizona State University's Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Merrill conducted three polls on the measure, and in each poll he said about 65 percent of respondents were in support of banning gay marriage, but even more people were against the idea of taking away benefits.

As such, opponents removed the notion of gay marriage from debate over the proposition.

"We didn't focus much on same-sex marriage because it didn't matter," said Kyrsten Sinema, chair of Arizona Together and a Phoenix legislator, referring to the existing law against same-sex marriages.

That argument may have played well with Arizona's independent voters.

"There is an anti-government bend to the state," said Fred Solop, a political-science professor and pollster at Northern Arizona University. "Questions of altering the constitution, people take a closer look at that."

However, he said that the message of taking away benefits resonated in municipalities and institutions such as Tucson and the UA and ASU.

"That message was able to penetrate the noise of the campaign," he said.

While the measure was passing easily in Arizona's rural counties, it was losing in Maricopa, Coconino and Pima counties.

Because the majority of the outstanding ballots come from those counties where opposition was greatest, Sinema, of Arizona Together, said she was confident the results would hold.

"The trends are very clear," she said. "They are very consistent, and they will stay that way. Nothing is going to change."