A curious morsel of Oscar lore originated on March 29, 1993, when Marisa Tomei was crowned Best Supporting Actress for “My Cousin Vinny.” The following year, The Hollywood Reporter and Entertainment Weekly printed rumors that presenter Jack Palance had announced the wrong name ― a seemingly credible possibility given Tomei’s unanticipated victory (she hadn’t earned a Golden Globe nomination, and “My Cousin Vinny” wasn’t typical Oscar fare). These whispers were debunked in the same breath, but the damage was done. As Gawker noted in a 2015 retrospective about the drama, this alleged mishap persists as Oscar mythology.

There’s no tangible reason to believe Tomei wasn’t the rightful champion. PricewaterhouseCoopers, the accounting firm that tabulates Oscar ballots, employs meticulous checks and balances to ensure no mistakes are made. But the Tomei fodder raises a valid question: What would happen if an erroneous winner is announced during the telecast? Maybe a presenter reads a name from the teleprompter instead of the envelope (which Palance supposedly did), or maybe someone decides to coronate their own winner.

PwC has protocol should such a glitch occur. Heading into Oscar night, only two people know the winners list: Brian Cullinan and Martha Ruiz, who supervise the counting procedures. They’re the briefcase holders who walk the red carpet every year and often appear at some point during the show.

The tally involves enough “redundancies” to ensure accuracy, as does the stuffing of the envelopes. “It’s him checking me and me checking him, and we do it multiple times against each other to make sure that when we leave and are ultimately handing the envelopes to someone, we’re very confident they’re getting the right envelopes and the contents in them are accurate,” Ruiz said.