Posted on 04/10/2016 11:36:07 PM PDT by ObamahatesPACoal
Special note from Colorado GOP Chairman Steve House on the decision to eliminate the presidential straw poll:
This past week I have received many questions about why the Colorado GOP eliminated the presidential straw poll at this year's caucus. There are several important facts and considerations to take into account.
At no time prior to this year has a straw poll bound delegates to specific candidates. Many thought that the 2012 straw poll bound delegates to winner Rick Santorum. In fact it did not.
There are some voters who believe this year the Democrats will bind delegates to Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders on Tuesday - they will not. The last time either party bound their delegates was in 2000 when we had a presidential primary.
This year the Republican National Committee requires that if a party conducts a straw poll it must bind delegates to the results.
Some ask why the Colorado GOP doesn't just comply and bind all of our delegates proportionally to the result of a straw poll. There are a number of reasons the executive committee decided against the poll this year and I won't go into all of them.
However, I want to share my most pressing concern with doing a binding preference poll. There is no such thing as a binding preference poll because when you actually award delegates via a poll it's not a poll - it's an election. The results could affect the outcome of the presidential race because this year the race is likely to be very close if not unsettled at the national convention.
So what's wrong with an election? Nothing if you are actually going to run it with all the precautions and security measures of an actual election. In our case we have over 2000 precincts in 64 counties where there is no uniformity of ballots, no uniform credentialing training process, no clarity on who actually counts ballots, no clear answer to who controls the tally sheets, and no uniform transparent process with integrity in the event there needs to be a recount. The prospect of awarding delegates through a straw poll with so many systemic loopholes and fraud risks is an unacceptable gamble given the stakes of this presidential election.
Picking our delegates through a controlled and secure four step process that is open to all registered Republicans is far preferable than an opaque straw poll. Something needs to change going forward but election integrity is still more important to me than any other factor.
I am confident that the process we use to elect delegates which provides the option for delegates to self bind to a presidential candidate will give Coloradans the opportunity they need to express their preference for president.
-Steve
Find your caucus location at caucus.cologop.org
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I throw out all morals when it comes to politics regardless of the candidate, Trump included. Any stance they take during the election process is a stance that gets them the most votes.
What they do in office is the only way to tell who they are.
Yeah but your vote no longer counts anymore. Think about that!
No more “you decide 2008”’, “you decide 2012” or “ you decide 2016”
“My daughter and I were elected (newbies) to go to the state convention. Several others elected was their first time as well. It will be interesting to see what happens at state. And the democrats in our state voted to have the Republican state primary to AFTER the convention! Goofy stuff. (The democrats just have the caucus - and Bernie won in Washington. Good grief!).”
The GOPe has general control of the GOP Officers, committees, rules, and PCOs (Precinct Committee Officers) in Washington State; and they used this control to filter out most of the Trump supporters at the earlier precinct caucuses by giving almost all of the delegate positions to Cruz and Rubio supporters. Bush didn’t attract any interest in out precinct caucuses. The few Trump and other non-Cruz supporters that made it to the County and Legislative Districts were entirely frozen out of the elections for the delegates to the State Convention in Pasco, Washington on 18-21 May 2016. Only a few non-Cruz alternate delegates were elected, and then only because they couldn’t recruit enough Cruz supporters to fill the positions for the alternate delegates. It is expected the GOPe county officers will use their discretion to put the non-Cruz alternate delegates at the bottom of the list to ensure they cannot become promoted to delegate at the state convention. This in effect will mean the voters who voted for delegates to represent their support of Trump will become virtually disenfranchised at the State Convention and in the rules committee at the National Convention, regardless of whether or not Trump wins a majority of the delegates before and at the first ballot at the National Convention.
You may be correct, but would he have won them all? And if they voted and then Ted won them all, that's OK, but no one can defend this cloak room deal.
Not even you and all the cruzers will be satisfied if the pubbies get together in the cloak room and 'select' Paul Ryan as the pubbie candidate.
Everything worked perfectly
“Picking our delegates through a ‘controlled’ and secure four step process that is open to all registered Republicans is far preferable than an opaque straw poll. Something needs to change going forward but election integrity is still more important to me than any other factor.”
I say BS...you guys opened many eyes and you will be catching hell from you gope masters above. You got caught associating with and gloating about your being part of #nevertrump. The onlt truthful part about your statement is “controlled” and you sure did that against the voters and to Trump! Good luck to you...you are going to need it...cruzloser!!!
Idiot headline. Not even close to accurate.
“Cruz would’ve won the state in a primary vote “
you’re sure...must have bought the soros voting equipment / system
You mean he’s playing by the rules and you don’t like the outcome.
Got it.
bad but set up in August last year long before anyone knew who’d be ahead in the polls.
_______________________________________________________
Do you know you just acknowledged a corrupt system? They set it up after Trump entered the race. Why did they set up a system they admit is broken in the first place? So they could have latitude to manipulate the system and get their way under any circumstance even if it disenfranchised the voters and that is exactly what they did.
When did you become a Democrat? Direct democracy sucks, which is why we are a Republic.
A Primary is open to cross-over votes which gets us a weaker candidate form a CONSERVATIVE standpoint. A caucus system isn’t as you condense the conservative vote down starting from the local BPOU level in your Precinct.
The LIVs showing their ignorance of process. Shaudenfrudalicious!
I sure hope the people in the rest of the primary states see the shenanigans going on in the corrupt corporate and political channels to screw Trump at all costs. If they do, there is going to be a huge backlash against this crookedness by the remaining voters and it will sweep Trump to his 1237.
“Any time you hear someone talking about a brokered convention it is the Washington establishment in a fevered frenzy. They’re really frustrated because all of their chosen candidates, all of their golden children, the voters keep rejecting. And so they seized on this master plan,” Cruz said mockingly.
“If you want to beat Donald Trump here’s how you do it: You beat Donald Trump with the voters,” he said.
Cruz said that if the Washington establishment tried to steal the nomination from the GOP front-runner, currently Donald Trump, it could cause a revolt. That's why
"If you want to beat Donald, the way to do it is to come together behind this campaign," he said.
http://hotair.com/archives/2016/03/05/cruz-just-say-no-to-a-contested-convention/
The above Cruz quotes from 03.05 - barely a month later he's changed his tune considerably. What happened between then and now - Super Tuesday wipeout. STW - and all of a sudden morals, principles and values change - 180 and on a dime. This is what people need to focus on - and understand. Let others argue numbers - go shrill. This is what Ted does - and why in God's good earth would anyone expect he'd do otherwise if elected - and political realities change. How long will it take him then to change or discard his promises - 180 and on a dime.
Cruz will be mathematically eliminated very soon - IF, after that, he continues - stealing backrooming delegates - he's helping the GOP "and the DC power brokers drop someone in who is exactly to the liking of the Washington establishment."
They have not had a real election in almost 2 decades. When the GOP said the straw poll had to bind delegates it became an election and it was too late for them to put a real election together. A Freeper posted here when it hapoened.
The tight race is just serendipity - it bolsters their decision.
So Cruz wants to become the Loophole President losing the vote of the people by millions of votes already?
Regarding the GOP, BURN BABY BURN.
Primary them all over and over and boycott GOP sponsors.
Wow and thanks!
Please send that to the Trump campaign.
When did you become a communist that wants to deny people their vote?
Delegates have always honored the voters unless it was very, very close like in 1952.
he’s the won who won the delegates
won who won...? A new Chinese dinner soup...?
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