Hundreds of WSU students and Pullman residents gathered together across the city to participate in the state democratic caucus on Saturday.

In the Todd Atrium, many of the caucus-goers were millennial voters excited to participate in their civic duty for the first time.

“I haven’t done anything like this before, I thought it’d be a good experience,” said Jason Richard, 20, sophomore majoring in astrophysics. “This election has a lot going on with it and there’s a more civil dialogue in the Democratic Party.”

Lillie Nygren, a third year foreign exchange student from Sweden, volunteered to help at the caucus.

“I’m just really passionate about politics and saw a table in the CUB informing people about the caucus so I got involved,” she said.

Nygren said compared to what the voting system looks like in her homeland, the U.S. looks ‘medieval.’

“There’s nothing like what happened in Arizona,” she said.

Area caucus coordinator David Gibney said the caucus itself went a lot smoother than he expected with very little confusion.

Shortly after 10 a.m., Gibney explained to the caucus-goers how the voting would work. He said two votes would be casted for their presidential preference. They would cast one after gathering with their precinct based on where they lived in Pullman to discuss the strength of their candidates. The second vote would be after that discussion with their peers.

By mid-day, Pullman voters decided by a vote of about 86 to 24 that Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders was the best choice to become the next democratic President of The United States.

He went on to win Whitman County and the rest of the state by a landslide.

Pullman City Councilman Nathan Weller said Saturday’s caucus saw record turnout of voters in Pullman.

“I would say the majority were overwhelmingly younger,” he said. “Many of whom were showing up to register locally to vote and that’s huge.”

Weller said his conservative estimate for the voter turnout in Pullman was about 1,500.

“There were 46 people caucusing in my precinct alone,” he said.

Weller said the challenge now for the Pullman democrats will be to keep the volunteers and delegates organized and involved during the presidential season.

“I’ve said this at all our meetings: real change happens at the local level,” Weller said.

The delegates to the national convention will be selected at the congressional district caucuses in May, as well as the state convention in June.