David Bear, a spokesman for Diebold, said the vendors can't fully comply with the new state law because they can't provide the source code for the third-party applications in their e-voting systems. "The company wants to be in complete compliance with the law, but we felt there might be some difficulties in doing that," Bear said. "We are continuing to work with the state, as are the other vendors, because the state has determined that none of the vendors can comply."

Last month, Diebold filed a lawsuit in North Carolina asking that the company be exempted from the code escrow requirements of the new law, but that lawsuit was dismissed in court.

Ellen Bogard, a spokeswoman for Election Systems and Software, declined to comment.

Michelle Shafer, a spokeswoman for Sequoia Voting Systems, also had no comment on the lawsuit. But she pointed to a letter from Sequoia sales vice president Howard Cramer to Bartlett at the Elections Board, which states that Sequoia continues to try to comply with the certification requirements. "We would like [to] work with your office to do whatever is necessary to remain an approved voting system vendor in the state of North Carolina going forward," Cramer wrote.

McCloy, the e-voting activist, said she became involved in the case because of recent ongoing problems in North Carolina elections. In last year's presidential election, some 4,500 votes were "lost" in one county when e-voting machines malfunctioned, she said. Other counties allegedly registered more votes than voters in their districts, while others lost votes through malfunctioning e-voting machines, she said.