Colorado lawmakers defend use of private email accounts

<p>Photo: CPR/Hart Van Denburg</p>
<p>The gold dome on the Capitol in Denver.</p>

All 100 members of the Colorado General Assembly use private email accounts to conduct state business, according to KUSA-TV.

And neither the Colorado Speaker of the House Dickey Lee Hullinghorst nor the Colorado Senate President Bill Cadman have a problem with that:

"We've had a system in Colorado that's worked for us for a very long time," Hullinghorst said. "Yes, I hand it all over."

"We've been CORA'd, and have provided everything that has been asked of us," Cadman said.

Luis Toro of Colorado Ethics Watch told the station that the policy of using private email accounts doesn't allow the public to see an unfiltered version email correspondences. "At the end of the day we're just really working on the honor system," he said.