HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT GOP voters wait patiently outside Rosemary Clarke Middle School Saturday morning. HORACE LANGFORD JR. / PVT James Alexander uses a bullhorn to instruct Republicans waiting in line outside Rosemary Clarke Middle School Saturday morning. Advertisement

Pahrump voters constituted the majority of Nye County Republicans who showed up to participate in the state's first Republican caucus Saturday, Jan. 19 and helped propel Mitt Romney to a decisive state victory of 51 percent.

Of Romney's 22,646 Nevada votes, 408 came from Nye County.

Ron Paul, perhaps due to his comparatively heavy Nevada stumping (including two visits to Pahrump) took second place with 14 percent of the statewide votes.

In Nye County, however, the race between Paul and Romney was much closer, with Paul receiving 405 votes -- only three fewer than Romney -- according to the Nye County Republican Central Committee's straw poll results.

Paul's second-place victory, his most significant in the national campaign race thus far, seems partially due to a fairly consistent basis of support in northern counties, ranging from 6 percent to 17 percent, resulting in 6,084 votes statewide.

How much of Paul's strong showing in Nye County and the state can be attributed to taking the time to stump here remains questionable, however.

Duncan Hunter, for example, despite being the only other Republican candidate to visit Pahrump, fared much worse and came in dead last, garnering only 890 votes from the state (18 of which were cast courtesy of Nye County voters). He quit the race immediately after the caucus.

Here in Pahrump, cars were already lined up in the desert all the way to Simkins Road from Rosemary Clarke Middle School on Blagg Road by 8 a.m. caucus morning, a full hour before the voting was set to begin.

Pahrump Republicans made up 80 percent of all Nye County Republican voters, and each and every one of the 1,031 local voters waited for up to two and a half hours in a long line that snaked across the entire large campus and well into the parking lot.

Although the caucus had just begun, at only 10 minutes after nine John Ryan, local Republican, was already making his way back to his car after having voted.

"Be ready to wait a long, long time," he said.

Asked what he thought about having participated in the caucus, he replied, "I feel good about coming out to vote, but I think the Republican Party could've done a better job of organizing."

Ryan wasn't exaggerating by any means.

After most voters waited in line (some towards the middle of the line at 9 a.m. said they'd already been waiting over an hour), voters were crammed through a single door and directed by a harried Vicky Parker through a crush of people to a long table smushed against the wall of a narrow hallway.

Behind the table sat volunteers, each representing a precinct, helping voters to check in.

The process was made all the more hectic by people attempting to weave their way through the crowd to their precinct representatives.

"It's very hard to move in there," Ryan accurately summarized.

And since Rosemary Clarke Middle School was the only caucus location for Republicans, even when the Democrats began to descend on the campus by 11 a.m. for their own party's caucus, the line in the parking lot was still plenty long.

Nonetheless, registered Republicans devotedly trudged the half mile and stood in the chill, all in an attempt to participate in the democratic process.

"I think it's an honor and a privilege to participate in the selection of our national leaders," Nye County School District Superintendent Rob Roberts said from his place in line.

He explained that the schools being used as caucus locations were rented by the party organizations and the money would go to pay the salaries of custodial and other personnel needed to keep the schools open.

Nye County Sheriff Tony DeMeo also saw the long line as democracy in action.

"This is great," he said, motioning to the throng of people waiting in seeming perpetuity. "Look at all the people who are coming out after parking a mile away to stand in line."

DeMeo said no security problems were anticipated, but a plainclothes officer was milling about just in case. Meanwhile at the front of the line, Steven McKnight, 26, was waiting for his wife to emerge from the gridlock at the door.

McKnight was a little more pragmatic about the long wait and felt somewhat disenfranchised with the primary and caucus process in general.

"You have to expect to wait," McKnight said. "What I don't get is we're representing our precinct when we come here, but not everyone is a Republican or a Democrat, so not everyone's voice is heard."

Harold Tokerud, a Nye County school board member, said it took him about an hour and a half to vote. "I was excited to come out but very disappointed on how it was set up," Tokerud said.

Fifth District Judge Robert Lane, however, wasn't about to let the wait stop him from caucusing.

"I love this stuff," Lane said. "It's really exciting to see this long line. People wait for two hours and they still stay. That's dedication from our community."

With the clock inching closer towards 10 a.m., Town Board Vice Chairman John McDonald stood at the rear of the line.

"It'd be much more comfortable if (the caucus) was later in the year," McDonald said. "I don't know what they would've done if it had rained."