Mainers solidly rejected on Tuesday a politician-initiated proposal to lengthen term limits for state legislators, according to unofficial results compiled by the Bangor Daily News.

Election results late Tuesday evening indicated the referendum was trailing 2-to-1, 67 percent to 33 percent. With 84 percent of precincts reporting, the measure trailed with 151,267 votes opposed to 74,868 votes in favor.

In 1993, Maine voters decided they would be better served if legislators were limited in the consecutive terms they could serve and others were given a better chance of getting elected. The vote, which passed 2-to-1, set a limit of eight years, or four two-year terms, for both state representatives and senators.

Tuesday’s vote would have extended the limit to 12 years, or six consecutive two-year terms. But with the measure’s defeat, state legislators who want to retain their elected status will have to keep doing what many have done since 1993, which is to win a seat at the far end of the hall – the House and the Senate sit in chambers at opposite ends of the State House – if they reach the limit of four consecutive terms in either one.

Those in favor of increasing the limits had argued that a limit of four terms undermines institutional memory in the Legislature and unfairly prevents voters from electing their preferred candidate if that person is an incumbent who has reached the limit.

Opponents of the proposal said the will of the voters, who initiated the successful movement to adopt term limits 14 years ago, should trump the wishes of legislators, who put Tuesday’s proposal on the ballot. They also said a four-term limit creates a more balanced Legislature by inhibiting the emergence of career politicians who can hold onto their seats, and perhaps leadership positions, for decades.

Former state Sen. Jill Goldthwait, an independent from Bar Harbor, said Tuesday the best option is to repeal term limits, rather than to lengthen them. She said that with only four terms to learn the legislative process, many legislators end up following party lines rather than forming consensus on issues or arriving at their own decisions.

She said the power of incumbent politicians in the Legislature is exaggerated. Districts in Maine are manageable, she said, and anyone determined to unseat an incumbent can do it without spending a lot of money.

“When we have two-year terms, we have the power to replace them,” Goldthwait said.

Richard Rosen, a state senator from Bucksport, said Tuesday evening that the results show voters are happy with the limits they approved in 1993 and their resulting effects.

“I think you’ve seen a broader distribution of power in the Legislature,” he said. “You’ve seen more women in leadership roles and in chairs of committees.”

He said the limits have made the Legislature more representative of the state as a whole.

“The public does not want to see the days when six or eight long-serving members controlled the legislative process,” Rosen said. “It was entrenched power in the hands of a few.”