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EL PASO COUNTY, COLO. -- It was a "Santorum sweep" Tuesday night as he took home wins in Minnesota, Missouri and Colorado.

In Colorado Rick Santorum won with 40 percent of the votes, followed by favored Mitt Romney at 35 percent.

"The way the numbers went, it looked like Gov. Romney and Sen. Santorum were tied neck and neck going all through the night, if you look at the Colorado results, until El Paso County called in our results," Jennifer Daines, El Paso County Republican Party Secretary, said.

El Paso County gave Santorum the final push he needed to claim the state.

In El Paso County Santorum claimed 48 percent of the votes, and Romney got 32 percent.

The El Paso County Republican Party said this proves the county's votes matter, and candidates should be paying attention.

"What it tells local voters is that their voices matter, and matter big," Daines said. "So goes El Paso County, so goes Colorado, and so goes the White House."

While Tuesday night may have been a win for Santorum, Republicans said it's also a win for their party.

"We've been saying for months now that the road to the white house goes straight through El Paso County, and we are absolutely excited about that fact, because we proved it last night," Daines said.

Locally there was a huge voter turnout. Around 11,000 people turned out to caucus in El Paso County.

"We had 199 caucus meetings going on throughout the county, and we had a great turn out," Daines said.

Some of the meetings went late into the night as voters continued to discuss the candidates.

"It shows that voters care, that voters are very concerned about the direction this country is going in and that Republican voters in particular are very excited and wanting to take action," Daines said.

Tuesday's results also show that Republicans still have a long way to go before solidifying their presidential candidate.

"I think Ron Paul and Newt Gingrich will stay in the race for various reasons, but I think really it comes down to Romney and Santorum right now," Richard Randall, host of the Richard Randall show on KVOR radio, said.

Randall said he believes Democrats find Romney to be more of a threat and said they are probably excited about Tuesday's results.

"I think Democrats would actually prefer for it to be Santorum especially on social issues. I think that they think that they can beat Santorum. They can beat Gingrich, and they can certainly beat Ron Paul," he said.

Randall said Romney's more mainstream approach will help win over the unaffiliated voters, which will be key to taking the White House.

"If it only came down to Republicans and Democrats, and they split the unaffiliated vote, then Democrats are going to win. There are more Democrats in America than there are Republicans," Randall said.

Local Republicans said regardless of who gets the final bid for the Republican party they will back them all the way and prove that every vote in El Paso County counts.

"El Paso County needs to not only win as far as the Republican nominee goes, but El Paso County needs to win big. We need to pull out huge numbers in favor of our Republican nominee in order to beat Obama," Daines said.

It also appears that not only El Paso County will be important in the upcoming presidential election, but Colorado as a whole.

"It doesn't seem like it would be all that important with only nine votes, but those nine votes I think are going to be crucial, and I think it's why we've seen Barack Obama here so many times. I would expect to see him here a lot more, and whoever the Republican candidates is will be here a lot," Randall said.

Daines agreed.

"We're a swing state this year so every vote counts," she said.