Lines stretched out the doors at a number of caucus locations around the state, and the supply of ballots quickly dwindled, forcing caucus workers to photocopy provisional ballots to meet the demand.
At one point in the night the website for the democratic party in Utah reportedly crashed due to high traffic of voters looking for information.
It was a scene of chaos that caught Utah democrats by surprise, causing unexpected delays for caucus goers.
DeAnn Olsen sat in an auditorium at Logan High School, one of three caucus sites in Cache County. She said she had never witnessed a voter turnout like last night’s.
“I’ve been involved with the local democratic party for nearly 20 years, and it’s usually maybe 40 or 50 people her, I’ve never seen anything like this,” Olsen said.
Among the crowd who packed the high school hallways were an unprecedented amount of millennial voters. A key point in Bernie Sanders’ campaign strategy has been trying to get the message out to young voters to show their support with an actual vote.
“If large numbers of young people continue not to vote, not to participate in the political process, we will not succeed. If people do stand up, we will win it,” said Sanders, in a Now This News interview last year.
Utah State University students Becca Gordon and Alina Bannavong, two millennial voters caucusing for the first time answered Sander’s call to action. After they filled out their ballots they took two chairs near the back of the crowded auditorium to observe the spectacle.
“We really want to be as involved as we can, because we know our generation is the next one to come up. So it’s just good to be involved now,” Gordon said.
Sanders did well in Utah besting Hillary Clinton 80 percent to 20. To the north in Idaho Sanders posted 78 percent of votes. While Clinton won to the south in Arizona pulling 58 percent of voters. Sanders came out on top in pledged delegates last night 73 to 55 at last count, a first for him in a "Super Tuesday" event this election cycle.