This photograph captures a defining moment in Taiwan’s 2024 elections: the “Singing of the Votes” (唱票). At precisely 4 p.m. on Election Day, when vote casting ends, democracy stands illuminated under the bright lights of this elementary classroom-turned-sanctuary of civic engagement, mirrored in countless polling stations across the island. Each voting booth is converted, in a matter of minutes, into a vote-counting station. Each ballot is drawn from the box and announced aloud by a volunteer, held up for the public and press to see, then repeated, tallied, and verified by two additional volunteers. The deliberately human, manual vote-counting process highlights the delicate balance between transparency and accountability in one of the world’s most vibrant democracies.