It turns out that the country's In a , Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for Visa Services David Donahue said the results, announced by his department earlier this month, "did not represent a fair random selection of the entrants, as required by U.S. law."

"Although we received large numbers of entries every day during the 30-day registration period, a computer programming error caused more than 90 percent of the selectees to come from the first two days of the registration period," he said.

That means that people who turned in their applications on Oct. 5 or Oct. 6, 2010, had a much better chance of winning the lottery than everyone else.

State Department representatives couldn't immediately be reached for comment. , 22,000 people who thought they'd won the lottery are now finding out that there will be a new drawing.

More than 12 million people applied for the green card lottery last year. The program is designed to even out the mix of U.S. immigrants by giving some people from certain countries priority in the yearslong wait for a U.S. work visa, also known as a green card. There are between 50,000 and 55,000 winners each year.