“Show me the lie.”
__________
The article is intentionally misleading, I believe. The article tries to conflate two unrelated concepts. First, it argues that in some states Trump got, say, 50% of the votes but 60% of the delegates and thus was unfair to Cruz. Of course, the same is true for Cruz, who won by 13% in Wisconsin, and got about 90% of the delegates. The fact that the popular vote percentage and delegate percentage does not match up is true for every state’s delegate allocation system (some are winner take all, some proportional, some hybrid) and NEITHER candidate is complaining about this, because this fact does not favor either candidate in any way.
Next, the article tries to take the above disparity in popular vote and delegate allocation (which applies equally to each candidate, fair and square) and argue, without any logical connection, “Thus, the Colorado system was fair.” Wrong. In every other state, the voters got to actually vote for a candidate. In Colorado, they changed their system with Trump leading Cruz in the polling. It appears they did this to make the system more favorable for Cruz, and in the process they deprived one million of their citizens of the right to vote, and instead turned the process over to party insiders. It does not pass the smell test.
The former head of the Colorado republican party, not a Trump supporter, agreed that the process appeared unfair, saying “We’re sending the message that your vote doesn’t matter and your voice doesn’t count.”
The fact that the Colorado GOP sent out a tweet saying “We did it. #NeverTrump” makes it clear what was going on.
No they did not.
That rule was changed in August 2015, and the caucus was not held until March 1. Any voter could vote in the caucus as long as they registered Republican 30 days prior to the election.
Nobody was deprived of their right to vote. But apparently, a whole lot of people couldn't be bothered to put forth the effort to exercise it.
For the past 4 election cycles in Colo. a caucus is held to elect delegate to county assemblies and from there county assemblies elect delegates to the state and district assemblies. At that point that's where the delegates to the RNC are elected--NOTHING NEW.
The Colorado GOP started holding non-binding straw polls to coincide with their caucuses in 2008. This meant that the Colo. GOP did not bind their delegates to the straw poll and delegates could pledge who they supported through the National Delegate Notice of Intent form. This "pledge" bound the delegates on the first round of balloting.
Keep in mind the reason the Colo. GOP did change their pref. poll format this election cycle back in August was not b/c of Trump but because of an RNC rule change in 2012 that mandated if a state GOP had any kind of strawpoll, that state GOP was required to bound its delegates to the result of that straw poll.
The new rule was 16(a)(1):
Any statewide presidential preference vote that permits a choice among candidates for the Republican nomination for President of the United States in a primary, caucuses, or a state convention must be used to allocate and bind the state’s delegation to the national convention in either a proportional or winner-take-all manner, except for delegates and alternate delegates who appear on a ballot in a statewide election and are elected directly by primary voters.
Since Colo. never bound delegates to the straw poll to begin with, they changed the format back in August of 2015 and ditched the strawpoll so their delegates could remain unbound.
Repeatedly over the last few weeks, Trump has been outmaneuvered by a Cruz campaign that has demonstrated exhaustive knowledge of the delegate-selection process, a vastly superior organization, and unflagging hustle. Cruz operatives were on the ground in Colorado eight months ago, preparing for the March 1 precinct caucuses. By contrast, Trump’s chief of operations in Colorado, hired in March, was in the state for only 48 hours before he was sacked — the casualty of a power struggle between Trump higher-ups — and this weekend’s last-ditch effort to secure at least a handful of delegates was so chaotic that Trump’s team ended up inadvertently directing votes toward Cruz delegates.
But this mayhem should come as no surprise. As Trump himself said in Wisconsin earlier this month, dismissing Cruz’s superior delegate operation in Louisiana: “I don’t care about rules, folks.” That bravado may win applause, but it won’t win a nomination.