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The fate of California's controversial Proposition 29, a proposed tax on cigarettes, was still unclear early Wednesday.
Just before 1 a.m. (4 a.m. ET), one percentage point separated the sides in the battle over the proposed law that would raise taxes on every pack of cigarettes by $1, yielding an estimated $735 million a year for the state.
With close to 70% of the precincts reporting, the preliminary vote tally stood at 49.5% in favor and 50.5% against the law, election officials said.
Opponents of the law say three-quarters of money raised would go to cancer research.
"The American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the American Lung Association wrote the initiative carefully," Lori Bremner of the American Cancer Society told CNN's "Sanjay Gupta MD."
"The money is going to be invested in cancer research here in California and on tobacco prevention and cessation programs to protect kids and reduce smoking here in California."
Studies show the tax will help decrease smoking and save lives, she said.
But those opposed slam the tax as a misguided burden in an already tough economy.
"What we're seeing in the state of California is a lot of frustration on the part of our citizenry that it's just another tax," said Dr. Marcy Zwelling, a general practitioner. The tax, she said in an interview with CNN, "goes to build bigger bureaucracy, build business, build buildings, not necessarily to go to cancer research."
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