No I.D.? No problem!

With my first stint as an election judge now complete, I'm glad to say that everything went relatively smoothly and without incident.

It was certainly a long day. I arrived at 6 a.m. and didn't make it home until close to 11 p.m. But, we had close to a 50 percent turnout at my precinct with nearly 1300 voters coming through, so it all seemed worth it.

While we did have long lines at times, most people didn't seem overly bothered by the wait. Interestingly enough, the only real issue that upset voters was that they didn't have to show any I.D. in order to vote. No license, no utility bill, no nothing. As an election judge in Maryland, we are only allowed to ask for I.D. from a first-time voter who registered through the mail or if someone challenges the potential voter's identity.

Apparently some argue that voters may feel disenfranchised or intimidated if they're asked to prove who they really are. The American Civil Liberties Union, for example, regularly challenges attempts to require I.D. at the polls, saying it is akin to a poll tax and may discourage minorities or poor people from voting.

But from my vantage point, the real feelings of disenfranchisement came from voters who realized that anyone could have shown up and voted under their name.

Working as a check-in judge the whole day, I can tell you that at least 80 percent of the people who came in handed me a driver's license or a voter identification card as soon as they walked up. This included minorities, newly naturalized citizens, senior citizens, and people from all walks of life. They were proud to be able to vote and eager to exercise that right.

And just about every single person showed surprise and/or outrage that I didn't need to see their I.D.

One particular gentleman came up to me and asked what would stop him from giving his neighbor's name and voting as him. The answer? Absolutely nothing.

It's not like this in every state. According to the Election Reform Information Project, a non-partisan forum for election reform, 21 states currently require voters to show some form of I.D. Clearly Maryland isn't one of them but I think it should be.

The electronic age makes voter fraud even easier than before. Thanks to the National Center for the Study of Elections at UMBC, any person with internet access can easily go to a website and find out a person's polling place and party affiliation, as long as you have their name, date of birth, and zip code. Then they can show up at the polling place, give that name, and voila, instant voter fraud!

To top things off, the voter rolls still contain the names of people who have died, unless the family of the deceased has specifically notified the local board of elections. This means that a quick glance at the death notices in the newspaper can arm a person with all the information they need to vote under a dead person's name.

I have no desire to discourage anyone from voting. I was proud that as an election judge, we gave every single person an opportunity to cast a ballot, whether on the electronic voting machines or by a paper provisional ballot.

But in an era where trust is a thing of the past, it's time for Maryland's voting laws to catch up. Voting is one of the most sacred rights we hold as citizens and it angers me to no end that people are willing to jeopardize the security of an election so people don't get their feelings hurt.