Beatty residents showed up in large numbers for both the Democratic and Republican caucuses, held Jan. 19 at the Beatty Community Center and the Beatty Senior Center, respectively.

More than 14 percent of the town's registered Republicans and at least 22 percent of its Democrats participated.

While Beatty Democrats turned out more votes for candidate Barack Obama -- he earned 21 nods to rival Hillary Clinton's 18 -- each of the two candidates was awarded two delegates.

John Edwards, who pulled 13 votes, was awarded one delegate.

A pair of Republican candidates also managed to end the race in a tie, though only one -- John McCain -- is considered a frontrunner.

Ron Paul tied McCain with 10 votes. Mitt Romney followed with seven, Rudy Giuliani earned six and Mike Huckabee and Fred Thompson each garnered three votes. (Thompson has since withdrawn.)

A wide variety of issues was mentioned on both sides of the fence. Democrat and former Nye County Sheriff Harold "Stick" Davis supported Clinton and said her stance on health care was a big factor in earning his support.

"My issue is health care. That's one of the bigger ones," said Davis. "And the war in Iraq. I wasn't for it from the get-go, but we're there and we need to figure out how to get [the troops] out in a timely manner."

While most caucus-goers, like Davis, decided long before the events who they planned to support, not everyone was so sure.

Wendy Sue Scarborough, a Beatty shopkeeper who recently changed her party affiliation from Republican to Democrat, was torn between Clinton and Obama in the moments leading up to the start of the caucus.

In the end she caucused for Obama, whom she felt could best handle the war in Iraq and balance the federal budget.

"Even though he doesn't have the experience that Hillary does," she said, "I think he'll be good for the American people."

On both sides of the political aisle, however, participants expressed frustration with the caucus. Ronald Oden, a Republican caucus-goer and Ron Paul supporter, said he would have preferred a primary election set-up.

"The caucus is new to everybody here," he said, "and other states are having primaries, so why not in Nevada?"

Democrat Mike Watkins echoed Oden's confusion with the caucus set-up, but said he enjoyed the event's intimacy.

"It's much easier to just go in and vote, but this is a community get-together," Watkins said after the caucus was over. "It was fun, though. I enjoyed it. You get to meet people in the community you never met before."

Not all caucus-goers were able to participate in the event with fellow members of the community, however. Mercury precinct captain David Archuleta was the sole participant from his town, whose caucus was held in Beatty -- 58 miles away -- because of restrictions prohibiting public events on government-run land.

Because of the distance, Mercury's two other registered Democrats were unable to attend, Archuleta said. Next election cycle, he hopes additional planning will help give more Mercury residents a chance to caucus.

"I think it would be nice if they could participate, you know?" he said. "Give everybody a chance to vote."