LAS VEGAS -- Four years ago, the Nevada caucuses hardly mattered. John Kerry won 63% of the vote at just a handful of locations on Valentine's Day in 2004, well after he had sown up the nomination. This year, they could hardly matter more, and perhaps understandably, the Nevada Democratic Party has found difficulty handling the new attention.

Voters at Desert Pines High School, where about a dozen precincts joined to caucus, were confused by where they should go, how the process worked and even if they were registered to vote. "What a mess," said Liz Taylor, a Las Vegas voter who was caucusing for Barack Obama at one precinct in the cafeteria. As flummoxed attendees looked for their candidate's section, Taylor criticized the precinct organizer. "There's a lot of Spanish-speaking people here, and they don't know what she's saying," Taylor complained.

"I hope the press is more organized than we are," said Susan Farnsworth, who was signing people in at another precinct in the school gym. "People don't know where their precinct is." Still, she said, the State Party had tried. "They told us everything to do. And I got it down. I think."

The scene at Nevada Democrats' headquarters, at the Cashman Center north of downtown Las Vegas, was little better. Phones ring non-stop more than half an hour after caucuses were supposed to begin. Volunteers and staff sprint through the building at break-neck speed. And top advisers to many candidates mill around, looking for some member of the press to spin.

Back at Desert Pines, at virtually every precinct around campus, Clinton's sections were more full than those for any other candidate. Obama staffers scuttled around trying to convince more to join them, while caucus-goers hoping to cast a vote for John Edwards were scarcely seen.

Voters echoed their campaigns' main talking points: Clinton backers cited her experience as the chief reason for their support, singling out Bill Clinton as a potential positive influence in the White House while criticizing Obama as naive. Obama fans said they wanted massive and dramatic change, hitting Clinton for being part of the problem in Washington.

Many, though, remained confused, and with the complicated rules of the caucus, things don't seem on track to get better. Most of the confusion can be dismissed as first-time jitters, Taylor, the Obama backer, said. "You always start out like this, with two left feet."