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Let me explain what happened. First of all, the Colorado poll was exactly that - a poll. It had nothing at all to do with how delegates were selected and bound. In 2015, the National GOP (i.e. the GOPe) approached Colorado and asked them to make their poll binding. They asked this so that the GOP nominee would be settled earlier in the primary season rather than later. Colorado refused. Do you hear what I'm saying? The GOPe wanted Colorado to bind their delegates to the straw poll thinking it would help the establishment candidate lock it down early. And Colorado told the GOPe to stick it. And just so was no confusion about it, they cancelled the poll.

So the only change that was made was that a straw poll that didn't count anyway was omitted. And they did this as rebellion against the GOPe.

Then, suddenly, the CO GOP held a state convention to select bound delegates--disregarding its own rules from August stating that they would not be bound.

They are not bound only if they do not declare. According to the bylaws:

In the event a candidate for national delegate indicates on his or her notice of intent to run as a national delegate that such candidate is pledged to support a particular presidential candidate, the State Chairman of the Colorado Republican State Central Committee shall cast the vote on behalf of that national delegate on the first nominating ballot in accordance with the pledge of support made by such national delegate on their notice of intent to run; except that if a qualifying presidential candidate releases his delegates through public declaration or written notification, the presidential candidate's name is not placed in nomination, or the presidential candidate does not otherwise qualify for nomination ..., the individual National Delegates and National Alternate Delegates previously pledged are released to cast their ballots as each may choose, or the State Chairman shall allocate and cast the delegate votes to the remaining presidential candidates as if the eliminated presidential candidate had failed to qualify. On any succeeding ballot for president, the national delegates are released to cast their ballots as each may choose. CRC Bylaws, Art. XIII, § A(3).

This means that at the State convention, if a candidate for delegate declares support for a candidate (which will be noted in writing and included with the ballot), then that delegate's vote will go towards that candidate in Round 1. If a delegate candidate does not declare for any candidate, then that delegate is free to vote for whomever in Round 1.

I hope this helps.

Oh, my goodness. Your response to the Denver Post article explaining the rules change to leave delegates unbound prior to the convention is to post a excerpt of the bylaws, 159 words of a single convoluted sentence (from which some words were omitted, as evidenced by the ellipsis) that says--well, that's anyone's guess. Like too many examples of legalese, it is written in such a way that it does not clearly say anything and is open to interpretation. The second, shorter sentence from that excerpt actually does seem to state a clear concept. But that 159(+) word sentence does not.

Anyway, perusing through that green website, I once again see that the GOP chairman in CO stated that the rule change in August was supposed to leave the delegates unbound: “Eliminating the straw poll means the delegates we send to the national convention in Cleveland will be free to choose the candidate they feel can best put America back on a path to prosperity and security,” Chairman Steve House said. “No one wants to see their vote cast for an empty chair, especially not on a stage as big as the national convention’s.” So, again, why the subsequent change after the rules were changed in August?

One other thing, and that is a perusal of the green website looks like the whole process was highly irregular. In theory, delegates are drawn from the pool of Republican voters. So I am supposed to believe that this sampling of CO Republican voters did not result in the selection of a single Trump delegate? Come on. That is statistically impossible. The fact that a handful of Trump delegates ended up as alternates looks suspicious, too--as if the state party realized how bad that result looked, and threw in a few Trump alternate delegates to deflect suspicion.

Now, let's climb out of the weeds and look at the big picture. Most people do not have the time or inclination to slog through a bunch of dense legalese explaining why nothing untoward happened in CO. Most people perceive that a highly irregular process took place to give 81% of the delegates to Cruz, when they know that it is impossible for Cruz to have 81% support among CO Republican voters. This is politics: perception is reality. And this outcome hurt Cruz, not Trump.