DES MOINES, Iowa — As more than 100,000 Iowans attended the state’s first-in-the-nation caucuses Tuesday evening, nearly two dozen students at Drake University returned to campus early to cast their votes in this year’s presidential election.

The students, many of whom live with their families in other states, participated in one of two caucuses held in Drake’s student union building. Drake allowed these students to sleep in the same building Tuesday night.

Those who showed up from out of state said they would rather vote in Iowa because the caucuses’ results are so important to candidates and to the media.

Republican presidential hopefuls have campaigned all across the Hawkeye state over the past nine months. Ben Levine, a sophomore at Drake who grew up in neighboring Minnesota, said he has attended a number of candidates’ events, which have helped him decide who to vote for.

“Iowa’s blessed because we are first in the nation, just out of tradition,” he said. “It makes a politics major like myself really happy because I get to see the candidates all the time.”

Levine said he supported Rep. Ron Paul, R-Texas, because of Paul’s economic positions. He said other college students he has talked to share his concerns about the economy.

“You’ve got to look at financial issues,” he said. “We don’t want to be broke. And then there are civil liberties, which I think every conservative should want to preserve. We shouldn’t have to give them up for security.”

Other caucus-goers said they had different priorities in picking candidates. Rachael Hall, who graduated from Drake in 2010 and still lives in the area, said she was looking for a candidate who shared her religious values. Hall said she had considered supporting Texas Gov. Rick Perry and Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., but that she ultimately decided to back former Pennsylvania Sen. Rick Santorum.

“I would like somebody who has great character, somebody who doesn’t go back on what they say and somebody who is a Christian,” she said. “I guess I’ve been praying for that.”

Napoleon Douglas, a college student from Des Moines who helped organize the caucuses at Drake, said his peers have been concerned with a range of issues, from values to the economy. He said he was impressed by the turnout of young voters at the Drake caucus sites, no matter whom they supported.

“I think it’s a wonderful thing that we’re able to allow students to come back and participate in this,” he said. “To get anyone to come back just to participate in this is very fulfilling and a goal reached. It’s very reassuring to hear.”

Delegates from each of Iowa’s 1,774 Republican caucuses will head next to county conventions. Representatives of those conventions will then decide which candidates will receive 25 of the state’s 28 delegates to the 2012 Republican National Convention.