Asking for reimbursement of $8.5 million from Premier Election Solutions, formerly Diebold Elections Systems Inc. - the maker of electronic voting machines - Maryland officials claim that the money was spent to fix the flaws in the machines.

According to Attorney General Doug Gansler, the machines malfunctioned at the polls, and the money being claimed was used by the state to correct the flaws in the machines, which neither had enough controls and protections against errors, nor did they conform to the state information security rules.

The state had, in 2001, signed a $90-million contract with Diebold for the machines, their software as well as support. Within a couple of years, the state had to undertake measures to fix the security problems with the machines.

In a statement, Gansler said: "The equipment supplied by Diebold had vulnerabilities that needed to be fixed before it could be used in state elections. Under the terms of the contract, the company must reimburse the State for its costs of fixing Diebold's voting system to make it more accurate, reliable, and secure."

As such, till the time the ongoing dispute with Premier is settled, the state intends withholding a $4 million payment on a recent bill relating to the 2008 election.

Meanwhile, disputing both the claim and its timing, Premier President Dave Byrd said that the company had helped the state in the smooth conduct of the recent elections.