DENVER -- Even though the idea passed in Denver, the proposal to legalize one ounce of marijuana wasn't flying in the state.

With more than 1.2 million votes tallied, six out of 10 voters in the state rejected a proposal to legalize possession of up to an ounce of marijuana for adults 21 years of age and older.

The proposal scored highest with voters in Pitkin County, home to the ski resort town of Aspen, where 72 percent of voters approved the measure. It ran into the stiffest opposition in rural Kiowa County on the Kansas border, where nearly 83 percent of voters rejected the proposal.

In Denver, where voters last year approved a similar measure, early results showed about 55 percent of voters backed the measure. Proponents touted the drug as a safer recreational alternative to alcohol.

For 22-year-old Renee Schultheis, marijuana was the main reason she stood through a two-hour wait to vote.

"There's a lot behind it," she said. "I mean, it's better for you than alcohol. And right now, it's available to kids under 16, under 18, under 21. This would be a better way to control it."

In suburban Lakewood, Justin Bennett, 22, also said the issue was one of the top reasons that motivated him to vote, but for a different reason.

"It sends a bad message to kids," he said. "They (proponents) made a case against alcohol, not in favor marijuana."

Members of the group Safer Alternative For Enjoyable Recreation, SAFER, collected enough signatures to get the measure placed on the ballot.

SAFER helped get a similar measure on last fall's ballot that made the same amount of marijuana legal in Denver. Initiative 100 was approved by a majority of Denver voters and made the city the first in the country to vote to remove all penalties for private adult marijuana possession.

However, state authorities had said Denver's Initiative 100 was virtually meaningless because of state and federal laws that make even small amounts of marijuana illegal.