Benicians voted Tuesday to add another penny per dollar to the municipal sales tax to provide more money for city services. But they rejected the opportunity to turn the city treasurer office into an appointed position.

The sales tax Measure C won by more than 61 percent of the vote, 4,282 to 2,632. Measure B, which asked voters if they wanted an appointed treasurer at the conclusion of current Treasurer Kenneth Paulk’s term, was turned down 3,501 to 3,075, or by more than 53 percent of the voters.

Those numbers were released late Tuesday by the Solano County Registrar of Voters office.

Two Council races were before the voters, too. But incumbents Alan Schwartzman and Mark Hughes ran unopposed for the two vacancies.

Hughes received 4,312 votes, and Schwartzman received 4,253. Another 211 voters decided to use the opportunity to add write-in candidates to the mix.

Voting by mail appealed to more Benicia voters, rather than physically going to the polls. In the Council races, 2,517 of Hughes’s votes came by mail, compared to 1,795 cast Tuesday.

Schwartzman’s numbers were similar — 2,493 by mail and 1,760 on Election Day. (The write-in candidates were nearly evenly split — 108 by mail and 103 on Election Day.) Likewise, the ballot measures also received more votes by mail — 2,453 for and 1,461 against by mail on the sales tax measure, compared to 1,829 in favor and 1,171 opposed in votes cast Tuesday.

The treasurer measure followed the same trend, with 1,896 against and 1,857 for in the vote-by-mail ballots, and 1,605 against and 1,218 in favor of those who voted at the polls.

Of other Solano County voting for government races, Gov. Jerry Brown received 43,021 votes and his opponent, Neel Kashkari, received 24,291. Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, seeking re-election, received 40,561 votes, and his opponent, Ron Nehring received 26,385.

Both Brown and Newsom were re-elected handily.

Alex Padilla received 37,296 votes in the secretary of state race; his opponent Pete Peterson received 28,368.

Betty Yee received 38,468 votes in the Controller race, and Ashley Swearengin received 27,123.

Solano County voters preferred John Chiang, with 40,785 votes, to Greg Conlon, who received 25,093 votes.
They gave incumbent Attorney General Kamala Harris 39,089 votes and her challenger Ronald Gold 27,048.

In the insurance commissioner race, Dave Jones received 39,447 votes and his opponent, Ted Gaines, received 26,019.

Solano County voters chose Fiona Ma, with 38,542 votes, instead of James Theis, 25,886 votes, to be a member of the State Board of Equalization.

Benicia is in Congressional District Five, and Solano County voters cast 17,812 votes for incumbent U.S. Rep. Mike Thompson, and 4,619 for his opponent, James Hinton.

In the state Assembly, Susan Bonilla, who represents Benicia and the 14th District, received 16,248 votes, and her opponent, Joy Delepine, received 6,235.

All incumbent justices were affirmed to remain in office.

Tom Torlakson received 34,536 Solano County votes for superintendent of public instruction. His opponent received 24,304, with 532 write-in votes.

Pam Keith received 3,827 votes in the Solano Community College Board election, with Joe Ramos receiving 2,377; voters submitted 34 names as write-in candidates.

Brown promoted two state propositions. Solano County favored the first, authorizing a $7.12 billion in general obligation bonds for state water supply infrastructure projects, 42,450 to 23,284.

Solano County voters also liked the second proposition, 43,659 to 21,208. That proposition, sometimes called the “rainy day” budget proposition, requires annual transfers of state general fund revenues to the budget stabilization account and use of half the revenues to repay state debts. It also limits the use of remaining funds to emergencies or budget deficits.