South Dakota's three members of the Electoral College cast their votes for Republican John McCain on Monday as electors in other states cast votes to formally elect Barack Obama the nation's president.

The ceremony in the reception room outside Gov. Mike Rounds' office in the state Capitol was required by the U.S. Constitution.

Gov. Mike Rounds, Lt. Gov. Dennis Daugaard and Attorney General Larry Long signed six copies of documents at the state Capitol to cast South Dakota's official three votes in the presidential election.

McCain carried South Dakota with 53 percent of the vote in the November election, when Obama was elected president. No Democratic presidential candidate has carried South Dakota since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

Rounds said he disagrees with Obama on some issues, but the Republican governor said he wants to work with the Democratic president-elect on the economy, health care and other problems.

"In terms of the operation of government, we all owe the people of the United States and the individual states a cooperative spirit in terms of solving problems," Rounds said.

"The president and the Congress deserve not only our input and our feedback. They also deserve a sense of cooperation on our part," the governor said.

Rounds said he is pleased that Obama is appointing some cabinet members from western states, including some governors he worked with in the Western Governors Association. He mentioned New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, who will be commerce secretary, and Arizona Gov. Janet Napolitano, expected to be secretary of homeland security.

"These are good signs in terms of bringing in people from outside Washington who have some real ground-level understanding about some of the challenges we face in the western United States," Rounds said.

The governor also said Obama's appointment of former Sen. Tom Daschle as health secretary will give the new administration an understanding of health care needs in rural areas.

In addition, Rounds said he and other governors like Obama's plan for a stimulus package that would focus on helping states build infrastructure, such as roads and bridges. He said governors also would like additional federal help in paying for Medicaid, the state-federal program that pays medical bills for poor people.