What happens to Rick Santorum's delegates ?

Santorum has 281 total delegates (according to the Associated Press count), 84 were won in five states that award their delegates in nonbinding contests . Iowa, Colorado, Minnesota, Washington state and North Dakota had already been free to vote for any candidate at the Convention and remain free to do so.

The remaining 197 of Santorum’s delegates, according to the AP tally, are bound to the former Pennsylvania Senator – meaning that unless Santorum explicitly states that he is releasing them, those delegates are required to vote for Santorum at the Tampa convention this August .

Santorum did not state in his remarks Tuesday afternoon that he was releasing his delegates to former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, so, until Santorum does decide to release them (and he may well decide not to), those 197 delegates remain in Santorum’s column.