News : Election results: How Benton County compared with all of Iowa

In all but one of the major races on the 2010 General Election ballot, voters in Benton County agreed with the majority of voters from other counties.

Every candidate but one who won election Tuesday had more votes than his opponent among Benton County voters.

The lone exception is Congressman Leonard Boswell, who was re-elected. But in Benton County, Boswell's opponent, Brad Zaun, received 5,444 votes to Boswell's 4,121.

In all of the statewide races, Benton County residents voted the same way as Iowans in general. Candidates who won in Iowa all won in Benton County. And the three Iowa Supreme Court Justices who were removed from office in the retention election -- including Vinton native and Chief Justice Marsha Ternus -- had more "no" than "yes" votes from Benton County voters.

Below are results from the Benton County Auditor's Office for the contested races. All results are unofficial until the canvass by the Benton County Board of Supervisors. The number of votes is followed by the percentage of total votes received by each candidate listed. Incumbents are designated with (I).

Straight ticket voting -- Benton County voters Democrat DEM 1223 Republican REP 1675 U.S. Senate Total Votes 9972 Roxanne Conlin DEM 2794 28.02% Charles Grassley REP 6929 69.48% (I) U.S. House District 3 Total Votes 9858 Leonard Boswell DEM 4121 41.80% (I) Brad Zaun REP 5444 55.22% Iowa Governor Total Votes 10017 Chet Culver/ Patty Judge DEM 4096 40.89% (I) Terry Branstad/Kim Reynolds REP 5529 55.20% Iowa Secretary of State Total Votes 9658 Michael Mauro DEM 4210 43.59% (I) Matt Schultz REP 5133 53.15% Iowa State Auditor Jon Murphy DEM 3843 40.36% David Vaudt REP 5673 59.58% (I) Write-in Votes 6 0.06 Iowa State Treasurer Total Votes 9623 Michael Fitzgerald DEM 4834 50.23% (I) David Jamison REP 4783 49.70% Write-in Votes 6 0.06% Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Total Votes 9646 Francis Thicke DEM 2996 31.06% Bill Northey REP 6642 68.86% (I) Iowa Attorney General Total Votes 9808 Tom Miller DEM 5163 52.64% (I) Brenna Findley REP 4637 47.28% Judicial Retention (Iowa Supreme Court) Marsha Ternus Total Votes 9182 YES 3740 40.73% NO 5442 59.27% David L. Baker Total Votes 9010 YES 3513 38.99% NO 5497 61.01% Michael Streit Total Votes 8983 YES 3481 38.75% NO 5502 61.25% (County voters approved the retention of all District Judges, as did other voters) Constitution Question 2 (Should there be a Constitutional Convention?) Total Votes 8828 YES 2721 30.82% NO 6107 69.18% Constitution 1 (Should there be a trust fund set up for conservation, if any future Iowa sales tax increases go into effect?) Total Votes 9182 YES 5582 60.79% NO 3600 39.21% Iowa voters approved Question 1 and rejected Question 2.