COLUMBIA, S.C. - In the state's closely watched U.S. Senate race, the economy and taxes ranked highest among voter concerns, according to The Associated Press exit poll.

A third of voters said the economy and jobs were the top Senate issues, and Democrat Inez Tenenbaum was running neck-and-neck with Republican Jim DeMint in that group. Roughly a quarter of exit poll respondents said taxes was the one issue that mattered most in their choice for a senator, and those voters went 2-1 for DeMint.

Some voters were not swayed by Tenenbaum, who had criticized DeMint's proposal to scrap the Internal Revenue Service and replace it with a national sales tax.

"From the economic standpoint, I believe in a federal sales tax and eliminating the graduated tax brackets we have," said Dr. John Barbour, 29, of Charleston.

It was no surprise that President Bush had widespread support in South Carolina on Tuesday. Exit poll results showed roughly 80 percent of voters here had made up their minds on the presidential race more than a month ago. South Carolina voters haven't backed a Democratic presidential candidate since Jimmy Carter won in 1976.

Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry was competitive among the small percentage of voters who made up their minds within the past three days, but there simply weren't many of them, according to the poll of 1,735 South Carolina voters conducted for AP and television networks by Edison Media Research and Mitofsky International.

Results were subject to a sampling error of 4 percentage points, higher for subgroups.

Bush led among voters who said terrorism and moral values mattered most. The president held strong to his conservative Republican, evangelical base and even managed to sway roughly 24 percent of voters who described themselves as liberals.

Rebecca and Eddie Appling laughed about how their votes had canceled each other out.

"I think we needed to do more planning in the war," said Kerry voter Rebecca Appling, 49, assistant principal at a Lexington elementary school. "I don't think we can get out. We have to stay and fight."

But she said she also was concerned about the economy and the process of awarding uncontested bids to American companies working in Iraq.

"Halliburton concerns me," she said, referring to the company that Vice President Dick Cheney headed before 2000 and that was awarded a no-bid contract for work in Iraq.

Eddie Appling, 51, a Lexington middle school teacher, said he voted for Bush because "he does what he says he will do, even if it's unpopular. I trust him."

Kerry did well among the roughly one-fifth of South Carolinians who ranked the economy as the most important issue. Nearly 80 percent of those voters cast a ballot for the Democrat. Kerry and Bush split the vote among those 18-29 years old, but the president was ahead in all other age groups.

Female voters were considered the swing voters this election year. More minority women cast their ballots for Tenenbaum, but DeMint carried white women's votes 2-1.

A quarter of voters described themselves as independents, a voting bloc that was just about split between Tenenbaum and DeMint.

Tenenbaum had campaigned throughout the conservative-leaning state as a moderate who would act independent of her party.