Florida Attorney General Charlie Crist wants to know why three of the leading vendors of electronic voting machines have refused to do business with the controversial elections supervisor of Leon County.

Crist announced last Wednesday that his office had issued subpoenas to the three companies certified to sell e-voting machines in Florida. Crist alleges that Election Systems & Software Inc. (ES&S), Diebold Election Systems Inc. and Sequoia Voting Systems Inc. won't do business with Leon County, a refusal that indirectly caused the county to be in violation of both Florida and federal election laws.

Crist wants to know if the trio, which has sold voting machines to every Florida county for the past three years, privately reached an agreement to withhold their gear from Leon County. That's what prompted Crist to seek copies of documents related to the sales of e-voting machines in Florida since 2003.

Both the Civil Rights Division and the Antitrust Division of Crist's office are taking part in the probe, which began in February. 'It is critical for our democratic process to work efficiently and effectively, but of most importance, fairly,' said Crist in a statement. 'These subpoenas are to ensure that the rights of our voters with disabilities, as well as all Florida voters, are secured.'

The relationship between Leon County Election Supervisor Ion Sancho and voting-machine vendor Diebold has been rocky in recent months. Sancho has been an outspoken critic of touch-screen voting systems and even sponsored multiple hacks of the county's own optical scan AccuVote devices. The issue came to a head in December, when the Leon County Commission -- at Sancho's urging -- voted to replace its Diebold AccuVote optical scan gear.