Voting machines as black holes

It's amazing what some vendors sell. USA Today reports that in one North Carolina county, just one voting machine 'lost' several thousand votes. Each machine could apparently store only 3,005 votes, though the county was told by the vendor that the figure was 10,500.

Voters gaily voted in their thousands, only for many of their votes to disappear into a black hole.

According to the vendor, machines flash a warning message when there is no more room for storing ballots: "Evidently, this message was either ignored or overlooked" according to the head of the firm concerned.

Evidently, he's not a very bright guy.

How is it that first a - transient? - warning message is sent to the screen, where it will be seen only by voters, not election officials, and then the machine continues to allow votes to be cast, seemingly without limit, when none of the data can be stored? Presumably the one person who saw the message didn't report it (or more probably didn't notice it at all).

Is it really sensible to design a system that puts the onus for the smooth operation of a polling station, and the accurate recording of all votes cast, on one voter?

[And 3,005 stored ballots seems a tiny number; perhaps a way to sell more machines?]

More comment from Professor David Wagner at Evoting-Experts.