Voting has gotten some bad press in recent weeks, what with Kurdistan’s (nonbinding) independence referendum, which its neighbors decried as destabilizing, and Catalonia’s (unconstitutional) independence referendum, which provoked violence and a political firestorm.

But there’s a potentially bright democratic spot worth watching in the days ahead: the West African nation of Liberia.

That’s where the Monitor’s Africa bureau chief, Ryan Brown, has just arrived to cover an Oct. 10 presidential election. The vote has garnered far less attention than one in East Africa, where Kenya will soon rerun an August presidential poll compromised by “irregularities.” But it’s noteworthy: Only 14 years ago, Liberia was just beginning to crawl out of two civil wars that stretched from 1989 to 2003 and killed a quarter-million people. Just two years later, citizens elected President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf.

Now, the African continent’s first elected female head of state is poised to preside over Liberia’s first peaceful transfer of power between two democratically elected governments.

That’s progress.

Now to our five stories for today, showing teamwork, innovation, and cultural understanding at work.