Dozens of Georgia absentee ballots might have been destroyed when a U.S. mail truck caught fire Monday, according to the Georgia Secretary of State's Office.
The secretary's office addressed the vehicle fire during a press conference Tuesday and said election officials have already talked to the election's director in the area.
"A USPS truck, according to the election's director down there, burned to a crisp," interim Deputy Secretary of State Gabriel Sterling said, according to Fox 5 Atlanta. "There are 43 outstanding ballots in the county. We're working with USPS to see if they have images of what might have been on that truck, to reissue them. Worst comes to worst, we'll reissue the 43 ballots, or the county will reissue the 43 ballots, and first across the line for those voters will be the ballots that are accepted."
He added the fire was an example of a number of things state election officials might run into during an election cycle.
The Baker County Sheriff's Office posted pictures on Facebook of the fully engulfed Jeep in the 1000 block of Pretoria/Tarva Road, about 10 miles southwest of Albany.
Responding to someone who asked if there were any signs of foul play, the sheriff's office said it believed the fire was the result of a mechanical issue and the vehicle had recently been worked on.
The mail delivery driver was unharmed, according to the sheriff's office, but the truck is a total loss, as well as all the mail it was carrying.
More than one million votes had been cast in the state's midterm election as of Tuesday night, according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's Twitter account.
According to Sterling, 100,000 absentee ballots were received Tuesday alone and 124,000 Georgia residents voted in person during the early voting.
Located in southwest Georgia, Baker County is approximately 150 miles south of Atlanta.
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