Precinct caucus attendees must be registered to vote and affiliated with the Republican Party and must be a resident of their precinct to be eligible to participate in their precinct caucus.

Tuesday 7 February 2012: Precinct Caucuses meet in each precinct at 7p MST to choose delegates to the County Assemblies and District Conventions. Caucuses last about 1.5 hours. There are 2,917 precincts.

• There is no formal system applied in the Precinct Caucus to relate the presidential preference of the participants to the choice of the precinct's delegates to the Colorado County Assemblies and District Conventions; however, a non-binding Presidential Preference poll of the delegates will be conducted. (NOTE: It is the District Conventions and the State Convention that will actually pledge Republican National Convention delegates to presidential contenders).

Delegates selected at the Precinct Caucuses may (but are not required to) declare their Presidential Preference.

Since no National Convention delegates are bound to Presidential contenders, the Precinct Caucuses do not violate the RNC's Tuesday 6 March 2012 timing rule.

Here's how we estimate the delegate count on 7 February 2012: (Note that zero national convention delegates are allocated during the Precinct Caucuses - national convention delegates are first elected in March.)

We will soft count the state's 33 non-party leader delegates proportionally according to the popular vote for those candidates receiving 5% or more of the vote. This is a very rough estimate and will change by the time the district and state conventions meet.

Before Wednesday 28 March 2012: County Assemblies.

Delegates to the District and State Convention declare their Presidential Preference or indicate that they are unpledged. No National Convention delegates are elected.

Thursday 29 March - Friday 13 April 2012: Colorado's District Conventions.

Distict Caucuses choose the 21 National Convention Delegates (3 in each of Colorado's 7 Congression Districts) along with the district's delegates to the Colorado State Republican Convention.

• There is no formal system applied in the District Caucus to relate the presidential preference of the District Caucus delegates to the choice of the election district's delegates to the National or State Republican Convention. The delegates in attendance at each District Caucus alone determine if presidential preference is to be a factor and, if so, how it is to be applied.

Saturday 14 April 2012: The Colorado State Republican Convention convenes. The State Convention chooses 12 of 36 delegates from Colorado to the Republican National Convention.

• There is no formal system applied in the Convention to relate the presidential preference of the Convention delegates to the choice of the Convention's delegates to the Republican National Convention. The delegates in attendance at the State Convention alone determine if presidential preference is to be a factor and, if so, how it is to be applied.

In addition, 3 party leaders, the National Committeeman, the National Committeewoman, and the chairman of the Colorado's Republican Party, will attend the convention by virtue of their position, bound to the candidate of choice.

Notes:

20 July 2011: The Colorado Statesman reports that the Colorado GOP could move caucuses to February if states other than the pre-windows states (Iowa, New Hampshire, South Carolina, and Nevada) begin before 6 March 2011.

24 September 2011 - FoxNews: Colorado GOP Moves Up 2012 Caucuses to Day After Iowa's The Republican Central Committee votes to move the non-binding 6 March 2012 Precinct Caucuses to 7 February 2012.

On Friday 27 May 2011, Governor John W. Hickenlooper (Democratic) signed SB11-189. The law moves the state's partisan primary from the 2nd Tuesday in August to the last Tuesday in June-- 26 June 2012-- ("... a primary election shall be held ... on the last Tuesday in June of even-numbered years ..." [CO Revised Statutes 1-4-101(1)]) and moves the Democratic and Republican Presidential Precinct caucuses from the 1st Tuesday in February to the 1st Tuesday in March-- 6 March 2012-- ("the precinct caucuses shall be held on the first Tuesday in March ..." [CO Revised Statutes 1-3-102 (1) (a) (I)]).