To clarify on this, what do you mean by an "earlier version" - does that mean a later version.
2.7.x software and anything up to about 3.0.3 are prone to the errrors you have described, I had the same error, I think it was something to do with rejecting the migration from redgular addresses to bech32 addresses along with the code change from using python2 to python3. [aplogies I didn't pick this up earlier].
migration to python3 happened in v3.0 and bech32 was also available in that version.
The error wasn't fixed until about 3.0.3 though, I don't know what you're saying?
Disclaimer: I messed up the quote date also, I know.
now i am not sure which bug you are talking about
at first i thought you were talking about the python2 to python3 migration which made it hard for people to install the v3+ on different operating systems.
if you are pointing to the transaction parsing bug then it was fixed in 3.0.6 https://github.com/spesmilo/electrum/blob/master/RELEASE-NOTES
yeah i knew about bitcoin even before it was created in '74