Four essential voting machines were stolen in Atlanta Saturday, WSB-TV Atlanta reported Monday night.

The robbery happened a few days before the much-watched congressional special election that is scheduled to take place.

The stolen ExpressPoll equipment is used by poll workers to check-in voters, and check off those individuals who cast their ballots.

State officials began looking into the matter after the machines were taken from a Cobb County precinct manager’s vehicle on Saturday evening when the vehicle was parked on at a local Kroger store.

The office of Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp told WSB that Cobb County Elections waited two days to inform Kemp’s office about the theft of the equipment.

Cobb County election officials said that the stolen machines would not be able to be used to vote fraudulently and accessing voter information on them would be difficult.

“It is unacceptable that the Cobb County Elections Office waited two days to notify my office of this theft. We have opened an investigation, and we are taking steps to ensure that it has no effect on the election tomorrow. I am confident that the results will not be compromised,” Kemp said in a statement.

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