CROWN POINT | The Lake County election board insists a state computer vendor explain in person how one of its employees improperly altered public voting records.

Board members voted Tuesday to issue a subpoena requiring a representative of Quest Information Systems of Indianapolis to answer questions as early as next month regarding last month's mishap, said David Sak and Bruce Lambka, attorneys for the bi-partisan body.

State and county officials said last month a Quest employee was testing the statewide voter registration system when she accidentally altered the historical status of 58 Lake County absentee ballots cast in the May 8 primary.

The changes didn't affect the outcome of any May 8 races but could have resulted in the premature purging of people from the rolls of registered voters, Sak said.

County officials insist Quest explain how it will prevent such events in the future.

Sak said a Quest representative attended last month's election board meeting and promised to be present Tuesday, but neither Quest nor a representative of the Indiana secretary of state attended Tuesday's board meeting.

Secretary of State Todd Rokita's office released a copy of a letter that Paul Okeson, a deputy secretary of state, sent the board Tuesday stating that the office already had addressed the board's concerns in a prior meeting. Okeson also defended Quest and criticized Lake County for failing to attend meetings sponsored by the state to explain Quest's system.

In other business Tuesday, Lambka said the board voted to reprimand Aaron Jones on the basis of a complaint filed by Robert Comer, a resident council president in the Genesis Towers public senior high rise at 578 Broadway, Gary. Comer said Jones improperly entered the building's polling room on May 8 -- election night -- escorting other people at least twice. Jones said he was helping a partially blind woman in a wheelchair and a 95-year-old man find the polling place.