Dan Tokaji has an interesting essay on his Equal Vote blog today, “What Congress Should Be Talking About.” He writes at length about three things that might lead to election meltdowns in 2008 that are not part of the election reform debate as it is currently framed in Washington: statewide voter registration databases, other barriers to registration and participation, and the absence of decent quality data on election administration and outcomes from states and localities. It’s an essay that I’d hope folks in Washington will read, because as many of us have been warning since 2000, polling place voting technology is only one of the many problems with election administration in the US. Other than Dan’s list, I’d also note that we still don’t know as much as we need to about abstentee voting and voting-by-mail (though Paul and others are working hard to close the gap between what we need to know and don’t know), polling place activities, and ballot design and usabiilty.