In contrast, forensic methods that rely only on the reported numerical results cannot check whether an electoral outcome is correct, nor offer any statistical guarantees. However, they can detect some ways in which the numerical results might be tainted by fraud or error, and they can be used even when the investigators do not have access to accurate underlying voterverified records--because the investigators lack legal standing (e.g., they are members of the public, employees of NGOs, or foreign election observers), because the paper records do not exist (e.g., when voter preferences are captured using direct-recording electronic voting machines that do not generate a voter-verifiable paper trail), or because the paper records are not reliable (e.g., the chain of custody of the ballots might have been compromised, ballot boxes might have been “stuffed,” or ballots might have been lost, added, substituted, or altered).