The Latest: Alaska voters reject local bans on legalized pot

The Latest on votes in parts of Alaska to ban legalized marijuana operations (all times local):

10:05 p.m.

Voters in some parts of Alaska rejected attempts Tuesday to ban marijuana businesses.

Citizen initiatives were handily losing in and around the city of Fairbanks and in rural areas of the Kenai (KEE'-ny) Peninsula southwest of Anchorage.

Had the measures been approved, marijuana growers and retail stores would have had to close their shops.

Alaska voters in 2014 approved the recreational use of marijuana, but local governments could always opt out.

Proponents feared if these votes were successful, this would have emboldened other communities to ban marijuana or prompt the Legislature to roll back legalization. These are also two of Alaska's biggest marijuana growing areas, and that would have created problems for stores needing product in other parts of the nation's largest state.

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1:05 p.m.

Voters in some parts of Alaska are deciding whether to ban commercial marijuana cultivation and retail sales, three years after the nation's largest state passed a voter initiative legalizing the recreational use of the drug.

The votes Tuesday come during local elections in the state's major marijuana growing areas, in and around Fairbanks and on the Kenai (KEE'-nye) Peninsula southwest of Anchorage.

The 2014 statewide initiative that legalized marijuana allows local governments to ban pot businesses within their borders.

If the bans are successful, they could force retail stores and cultivation facilities to close. Personal use and growing pot at home would still be allowed.