Jeff Doucette was one of 773 residents who lined up outside Cape Elizabeth High School’s cafeteria Sunday for the town’s Democratic caucus.

A 23-year-old political science major at the University of Southern Maine, Doucette was excited to participate in his first caucus.

“It’s a great opportunity to interact with people and share ideas and hopefully learn a little bit,” Doucette said.

Doucette was one of thousands of Maine Democrats who broke attendance records last weekend at local caucuses, which decided how many delegates would go to Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. The Democratic caucus in Scarborough drew 704 residents, and the caucus in South Portland drew 1,052, including absentee ballots.

Doucette, who had campaigned for Obama, changed his mind just weeks prior to the caucus.

“Although Obama is a charismatic speaker, I felt that Clinton ultimately is a more experienced fighter in the political arena,” he said.

Doucette thinks she is “not afraid to take on tough issues,”

and she is cut out for the job of “building America’s reputation back up with foreign countries.” He also supports her plan for universal health care.

“Hillary believes in health care for everyone, whereas Obama supports affordable health care for those who want it,” Doucette said. “I believe everyone should have health care, regardless of whether they think they want it or not.”

Doucette said he was also swayed by Clinton’s promises to create more public funding for higher education and developing better low-interest loans for education.

“I had a friend who worked with me on Ethan Strimling’s campaign (for the 1st Congressional District), who had to drop out of University of Maine at Fort Kent because he couldn’t afford the tuition anymore,” Doucette said. “I also transferred from Northeastern to University of Southern Maine for financial reasons.”

Doucette also had the Iraq war on his mind while voting. “Clinton is in support of bringing the troops home,” Doucette said. “Although it bothered me that she supported the Iraq war initially, I can understand why she voted that way at the time.”

Doucette has been active on the campaign trail, initially for Obama and also for Strimling.

“There are a lot of issues that are important to me, and I want to be a part of the decision-making process,” Doucette said.

CAUCUS RESULTS

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Sen. Barack Obama had 59 percent of the vote, and Sen. Hillary Clinton had 40 percent, according to www.mainedems.org. Local caucus results appear below, with the number of delegates in parentheses. For local results from across southern Maine, go to www.keepmecurrent.com.

Cape Elizabeth

Hillary Clinton – 217 (11)

Barack Obama – 556 (28)

Scarborough

Hillary Clinton – 283 (22)

Barack Obama – 401 (31)

South Portland

Hillary Clinton – (27)

Barack Obama – (53)

Dennis Kucinich – (1)

Jeff Doucette/ Jeff Doucette at Cape Elizabeth’s Democratic caucus Feb. 10Caucus 2/ Cape Elizabeth voters line up to register with Democratic party town president Jeff Wagner.