In an age when the debate about technology and elections looks at things like texting campaign contributions, or Internet voting, or online voter registration, it's perhaps worth thinking that for many localities, the debate is at a far more basic level. A fascinating study examines county websites and finds them sorely lacking in terms of what voters want.

The most shocking statistic (to me) is that almost one-third of counties lacked an ​elections website. And as elections are administered mostly at the local level, it's important to consider that, for all the abstract technological ideas we have for the future, there are still pretty basic technological hurdles that local jurisdictions need to overcome in the years ahead.