Colorado Republicans cancel presidential poll at caucuses

Colorado’s state GOP has long had a complex system for selected a presidential nominee.

The Colorado Republican Party has traded its prominent standing in the early stages of the presidential nomination process for the ability of its delegates to support the candidate of their choice later on.

The state party’s executive committee voted Friday to eliminate the presidential preference poll held during the party’s March caucuses.

“It takes Colorado completely off the map” in the nomination process, Ryan Call, a former state Republican chairman, told our partners at The Denver Post.

Now, though, the state’s Republican delegates can continue to cast their votes as they wish at the national convention.

The party executive committee decided making the vote stick would make the caucuses too formal, AP said.

Yet, one critic says the move will diminish the swing state’s early role in the Republican presidential nominating contest.

While the results of the poll were previously non-binding – meaning delegates elected to the state’s convention were not required to support whichever candidate came out on top – a new rule adopted by the Republican National Committee would force delegates from Colorado to support the leading candidate in their state at the RNC convention next July.

In that case, Colorado’s 34 delegates would be up for grabs. “If we have a nominee, then we won’t get any attention”.

Colorado is a frequent general-election swing state and is expected to be an intense focus of the presidential campaign after the primary season ends.

Meanwhile, Colorado’s Democratic Party has left its caucuses unchanged and will move forward with its own straw poll on Super Tuesday – or March 1, 2016.