PIERRE, S.D. (AP) - South Dakota Secretary of State Chris Nelson said voter turnout in Tuesday's general election was about average, at a shade more than 73 percent.

The state official had earlier predicted turnout of 75 percent to 78 percent.

Turnout of registered voters in South Dakota set a record 81 percent in 1968.

Nelson said state turnout was 78.6 percent in the last general election featuring presidential candidates in 2004.

South Dakota has 530,462 registered voters, and Nelson said 387,355 of them went to the polls Tuesday.

The election process went smoothly with only a few minor problems, he said.

The secretary of state closed his office shortly after 2 a.m. Wednesday, the earliest he can remember after a general election. Election workers across the state did a fine job, he said.

"The system worked wonderfully," Nelson said. "I don't ever remember a general election wrapping up as well as this one did.

"We had one or two issues with scanners that they were able to resolve very quickly. But so far as the data coming up to us, they did just a phenomenal job of getting that put in the system quickly."

Among South Dakota's 66 counties, voter turnout was highest in Sully County at 79.31 percent. Harding County was the runnerup at 78.99 percent.

The lowest turnout of 42.53 percent was in Shannon County.