"Upon learning of the missing equipment on Jan. 18, our first goal was to take possession of the equipment and put processes into place that would ensure the reliability and integrity of our elections process and the systems we use," she said. "We will be very deliberate in determining exactly who was involved and the what, when and how all of this transpired so we can make certain it will not happen again."

None of the hardware was used in last year's elections, nor could it be used in upcoming elections, officials said. In fact, the handheld encoder devices -- used to program voter cards at each polling place so voters get the proper ballot -- were replaced early last year with a new ExpressPoll electronic poll book from Diebold, officials said. That system still uses the magnetic-striped cards, but now relies on a built-in encoding device. The programmed cards do not contain any personal information for voters, according to officials, and could not have been used by someone to hack into existing systems, Handel said.

"At no time were the elections in Georgia ever at risk," she said.

The state is now undergoing an independent audit of DeKalb County's voting equipment, as well as its security and custody procedures, to prevent the incident from reoccurring. Any needed changes will be put in place in time for upcoming elections next month, Handel said.

State elections workers are also retrieving all encoders, supervisor cards and voter access cards from DeKalb County, then giving the supervisor cards new county-specific passwords and special unique markings. State workers will mark the voter access cards as valid and then return them to DeKalb County.