A proposed half-cent sales tax increase for schools failed at the polls today in Nashville by a 2-to-1 margin.

With 100% of all precincts reporting, there were 15,389 votes in favor of the increase, or about 30% of the votes tallied, and 36,090 against it, which is roughly 70% of the balloting, election officials said around 9:15 p.m. today.

That total included early and paper ballots and all of Davidson County’s 172 precincts.

The question was whether to raise the local sales tax, which if approved would have brought the combined Metro and state rates to 9.75 cents on the dollar.