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 conventions. 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.
IF a delegate declares at the state convention in April, then that delegate becomes bound through that declaration (1st ballot only). They do NOT have to declare, but if they do, they are voluntarily binding themselves.
Those are the rules - rules set up by the State party, and rules that have been in effect for the previous three Presidential election cycles. None of that has been changed, despite the attempts of the GOPe. And none of this was designed to shut Donald Trump out.
The bottom line with Trump is that he didn't even try. His state director wasn't put in place until four days before the convention. He didn't speak to his delegate candidates beforehand. And he did not have any organization in place to help get Trump delegates elected.