SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Tripp County continues to hand count votes, the auditor’s office said at 10:49 p.m.

Two of the county’s 13 precincts were counted. The auditor’s office said it could be midnight or later before the hand count was completed.

Minnehaha County auditor Ben Kyte told KELOLAND News’ Perry Groton said it could be 2 or 3 a.m. Wednesday before the votes are all counted

Minnehaha County was waiting for one ballot box to be delivered, Groton reported at 10 p.m.

The county had two of 75 precincts fully reported as of 10:44 p.m. and 25 partially reporting.

At about 8:30 p.m. MT Fall River County was preparing to hand count three races in two precincts, the county auditor’s office said. At 9:25 p.m. MT (10:25 p.m. CT) the votes were still being hand counted.

The county ran all the ballots through the voting tabulation machine but the county board directed the auditor’s office to count votes in three races in two precincts.

The county has 28 precincts partially reported as of 10 p.m., according to the Secretary of State (SOS) website.

Fall River is one of at least two counties doing some type of hand count of votes.

Tripp County will be counting all votes by hand and then, counting all ballots with the voting tabulation machine. The votes will be hand counted at precincts.

As of 9:50 p.m. Tripp County had no precincts reported to the Secretary of State’s election results page on the website.

Vote counting was progressing across the state as McCook County had two precincts left to count of six shortly after 9 p.m.

So far, the county had a 67% voter turnout, the county auditor’s office said.

Codington County led the way with all 23 of its precincts reporting just after 9 p.m. The county had 63% of its voters who participated, county auditor Cindy Brugman said.

Earlier, Codington County had 12 of its 23 precincts reported.

The county started counting absentee ballots before the polls today, Brugman said.

By 8:13 p.m. the county had nine precincts fully recorded and reported on the South Dakota Secretary of State’s (SOS) website.

“We were able to run all those absentee ballots by 7 p.m.,” Brugman said.

The county had 4,819 absentee votes which is 27% of all the active registered voters in the county, she said.

Like other early results on the SOS website, Codington County was voting for U.S. Senate race winner John Thune. The Associated Press declared Thune the winner shortly after 8 p.m.

The AP also declared Republican incumbent Dusty Johnson the winner at 8:45 p.m.

Vote counting was in full swing in McCook County, auditor Geralyn Sherman said at 7:45 p.m.

“We do have a good turnout,” Sherman said. Two precincts counted so far had 67% and 62% turnout, she said.

According to the South Dakota Secretary of State’s website the county has 3,838 active voters.

In Minnehaha County, one county voting machine was dedicated to counting absentee ballots.

Local Boy Scouts were bringing ballot boxes into the Minnehaha County Courthouse as of 7:23 p.m. tonight.

The Scouts carry the boxes from precincts throughout the county.

About 15 minutes before the polls closed in Tripp County auditor Barb DeSersa said the volunteers to help with the county’s hand count were showing up to count.

The county’s board voted in October to hand count the election results tonight.

DeSersa said on Nov. 3 that abut 80% of the precinct workers agreed to stay and count and about eight to 10 more volunteers were willing to count.

South Dakota Election 2022 Resources from KELOLAND News

The hand counters could be busy as DeSersa said the voter turnout appears to be up over prior mid-term elections. The Colome and Lake precincts had reported about 65% voter turnout, she said.

Later this afternoon county auditors contacted by KELOLAND said voting had been going smoothly.

As of about 4:30 p.m., Brown County had 6,638 voters so far today and another 5,673 absentee votes, said auditor Lynn Heupel. As of that time, about 46% of registered voters had voted, she said.

In Hand County in Miller, auditor Doug DeBoer said “Overall it’s going well.”

The county had a review from a disability access organization and “I think we got a passing grade,” DeBoer said. The organization had some recommendations about the placement of assisted voting tools, he said.

The county had 529 requests for absentee ballots and but three to four were returned as votes, DeBoer said.

Overall, Fall River County auditor Sue Ganje said the county had 1,306 absentee ballots. Turnout across the county as of about 5:30 p.m. was 28%.

Edmunds County in Ipswich had 251 absentee votes, said auditor Keith Schurr. “It’s more than I expected,” Schurr said.

Secretary of State Steve Barnett told KELOLAND’s Dan Santella he estimated voter turnout could be anywhere from 55 to 64% statewide. 

There are 596,630 registered voters in South Dakota for the Nov. 8 midterm election.