DENVER – Many Colorado Democrats and Republicans agree with Donald Trump about one thing: There has to be a better way for Colorado to select its presidential nominee.

Colorado Republican Party Chairman Steve House has received death threats over the issue.

And Trump supporters are planning a protest in Colorado this week.

“Those caucuses this year were chaotic,” Gov. John Hickenlooper, a Democrat, said Tuesday. “I realize it’s going to cost more money and we have to look at how we are going to pay for that, and those are not inconsequential issues, but I support having an elected primary system.”

Two Democrats in the state House are working on a bill that would move Colorado away from the caucus to a presidential preference primary. A bill has not been introduced, and it may end up being one of the last things lawmakers consider this session.

Hickenlooper’s statement came a day after The Denver Post exposed an error in the immediate reporting of results from the Democrats’ March 1 caucus. The impact of the error was negligible – except momentum is everything, and Bernie Sanders would have had a bigger win in Colorado than was reported on Super Tuesday.

On Saturday, Ted Cruz won all of the state’s delegates at the GOP assembly in Colorado Springs. Trump called the system “a rigged, disgusting, dirty system.”

Even Colorado’s biggest critics of the system don’t go that far, but they certainly want to move away from the caucus.

“Trump is not completely wrong that our caucus system is flawed,” said Daniel Cole, executive director of the El Paso County GOP. “We would be better served by a presidential primary, but that doesn’t mean the caucus is rigged or corrupt. The rules have been in place for a long time and applied to all candidates equally.”

There are differences in how Democrats and Republicans in Colorado pick a “winner,” but the general concept is the same. Instead of an overall presidential primary election, Colorado’s final outcome depends on who shows up to seven congressional district assemblies and the state assembly to cast a final vote for delegates to go to each party’s national convention.

It’s a complex system that favors organization and game-day execution. It also tends to favor party favorites, especially on the Democrats’ side, where there are 12 superdelegates and nine party leaders who can vote for whomever they please. Republicans have only three such people in Colorado.

U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Yuma, said as much on his Twitter account.

“I’ve attended CO GOP conventions for years. It requires organization & attn to grassroots to win. Cruz had it. Trump didn’t. End of story,” Gardner tweeted Monday.

The anger over Colorado’s caucus system is fueled in part by a tweet from the state’s GOP account that said, “We did it. #NeverTrump.” The Republican Party, including the state factions, is supposed to be neutral in the race. A spokesman for the GOP said the tweet came from unauthorized access to the account and an investigation is underway.

“Shame on people who think somehow that it is right to threaten me and my family over not liking the outcome of an election,” House posted on his Facebook page. House said he’d received 3,000 phone calls “with many being the trashiest stuff you can imagine.”

But leaders from both parties began calling for a change in the presidential nominating system well before things went awry March 1.

Democrats in some districts had lines out the doors and there wasn’t enough time to sign in everyone who showed up. Republicans complained about not having a presidential preference poll and said they felt disenfranchised.

Republicans held congressional district assemblies on Friday, and the 5th Congressional District meeting ran long, forcing the 2nd Congressional District to meet outside the DoubleTree hotel. Democrats hold their state assembly Saturday in Loveland, and if elected delegates for Sanders don’t show up and Hillary Clinton wins more delegates than expected, things could get ugly.

Displeasure over the system is escalating.

“Trump has taken it to a new level,” said state Rep. Alec Garnett, D-Denver, who is working on the primary bill with Rep. Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City.

The bill will move the state to a presidential primary election in 2020, although it will keep the caucus system for state and county races. A similar bill was considered last year in the General Assembly but died. Garnett said that bill could have prevented this “electoral disaster.”

“I don’t think costs will prevent Colorado lawmakers from coming together in a bipartisan way to address the concern that we have heard from across the state,” Garnett said.

The bill will likely be introduced next week, he said.

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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

Twitter @CapitolSchrader