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Confusion surrounding the outcome of Proposition 72 – which would have forced California businesses with 50 or more employees to provide health insurance for their workers – was finally put to rest Wednesday when state election officials declared the proposition defeated.

Proposition 72, which would have provided over one million Californians with health care coverage, was on the Nov. 2 election ballot and was originally thought to have been defeated.

But the proposition’s defeat was called into question due to a report from the California Secretary of State’s office Tuesday night stating that the addition of provisional and absentee ballots from 17 counties had tipped the scales in its favor.

The late results were said to have pushed the proposition to a 50.5 percent victory.

But a few hours after posting the results, state election officials removed them from the secretary of state’s Web site suspecting that a clerical error or a computer glitch was behind the surprising new data.

Officials decided to wait until Tuesday night – the deadline for counties to tally any remaining absentee and provisional ballots – before releasing the results.

Election officials announced on Wednesday that the confusion was a result of incorrect data sent in from San Diego County after the county sent its ballot results to the Secretary of State’s office out of sequence, which caused the vote counts to be attached to the wrong propositions.

Students said they were dismayed at the fate of the proposition.

“I’m disappointed that the measure wasn’t passed. Health care is such an important issue for so many people. There are many families in California who needed this proposition passed so they could afford health insurance,” said Michael Sarge, a fourth-year political science student.

The corrected tally showed Proposition 72 with 49.1 percent of the vote, falling short of passing by 202,854 votes. The outcome was the closest of all 16 measures in this election.

“I was really hoping that this proposition would succeed. It would have made health care accessible to millions of Californians and would have relieved average workers and their families from worrying about how they would pay for their medical bills if an emergency happened,” said NaMee Donan, a third-year neuroscience student who voted for the measure.

The ambiguity of the proposition might have had something to do with why it failed to get passed, said Donald E. Morisky, chairman of the public health department.

“There was a lot of misunderstanding on who would be responsible for paying for the health insurance. It wasn’t clear whether it would be the employees or the employers who would cover most of the costs,” Morisky said.

“The legislature is currently putting together a package to see the risk factor of employees of small companies. What is needed is a plan that would cover a larger amount of employees for a smaller cost and create lower premiums for individuals,” he added.

Opponents of the proposition were against the perceived mandates forced upon employers and many believe that before the measure could be brought up again in future elections, issues on how to alleviate financial pressure on employers if they are required to provide workers with insurance need to be addressed.