In order to reduce the risk of vote buying, it is important to guarantee the secrecy of the vote and to halt open voting. Also taking pictures of marked ballots in the voting booth with a mobile phone can indicate vote buying and should be forbidden by law (such as, for instance, in Germany where, however, vote buying hardly occurs). Furthermore, it must be ensured (and observed) that voters do not leave the polling stations without depositing their ballots in the ballot boxes because some voters may try to take blank but stamped ballots outside the polling station and give or sell them to other people. There have been instances where stamped or signed ballots were circulating outside polling stations on election day.