 "Photo: Matt Buxton")
Thousands of Nebraskans came out in droves on Saturday to participate in the state's first Democratic presidential caucus.
At the end of the night, Sen. Barack Obama was declared the landslide winner against Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Obama received 25,887 votes compared to Clinton's 12,347.
The Nebraska victory allowed Obama to walk away with 16 of the state's 24 delegates.
The Obama craze was evident at the caucus precinct located in the Nebraska Union at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
Regency Suite A in the union was crammed with 207 people, the majority of whom were students who live on campus. Out of those 207 people, 169 caucused for Obama while 38 were for Clinton.
In describing the number of Obama supporters in the room, the precinct's chairman Erik Mellgren, a sophomore biochemistry major at UNL said, "There's a whole metric crapload of you."
At the beginning of the caucus, 13 participants declared themselves undecided. By the end of the night, they had gone to either the Clinton or Obama side.
"(The caucus) is a good chance to talk about issues," said Erin Healy, a junior political science and Latin major. "It's great for people who are still undecided."
The precinct ended up giving Obama five delegates as opposed to Clinton's one.
To gain one delegate, a candidate had to have 32 supporters, or 15 percent of the people in the room.
In all, 471 people in five precincts attended caucuses in the Nebraska Union.
While the other four precincts remained mostly quiet during the caucus, the on-campus students' precinct could be heard from down the hall. Supporters of each candidate yelled at each other from across the room, saying why their candidate was better than the other.
"We're all Dems here," Mellgren said during the debating. "Anyone's going to be a good president."
Brent Klingemann, a junior political science major, said Saturday's caucus was nothing like the mock caucus he had attended on campus.
Despite the bickering, most students agreed they were glad to see so many students show up to caucus.
Paul Hotovy, a freshman history major, said, "The notion of change has pushed students to think they can make a difference."
katie nieland and adam ziegler contributed to this report.
katiesteiner@dailynebraskan.com
