Best news of the night. Sensibility reigned, even in a blue state.

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PORTLAND, Maine — Voters on Tuesday repealed the state’s same sex marriage law after an emotionally charged campaign that drew large numbers to the polls and focused national attention on Maine. With 87 percent of precincts reporting, the campaign to overturn Maine’s same-sex marriage law won with 53 percent of the vote vs. 47 percent opposed to Question 1, according to unofficial results compiled by the Bangor Daily News.

“Question 1 has passed,” Frank Schubert, campaign manager of Stand for Marriage Maine, announced in Portland. “It has all come together tonight and the institution of marriage has been preserved.”

About 40 people who worked on the Yes on 1 campaign cheered as they heard the announcement by computer hookup at Jeff’s Catering in Brewer.

“We went up against tremendous odds,” Marc Mutty, public affairs director for the Roman Catholic Diocese of Portland who has been on loan to the campaign, said from Portland. “We all know we were the little guy going up against the big guy, but we prevailed. We prevailed because the people of Maine — the silent majority — the folks back home spoke with their votes.

In a defiant speech to several hundred lingering supporters, No on 1 campaign manager Jesse Connolly pledged that his side “will not quit until we know where every single one of these votes lives.” (Oooooooooh, scary )