Ann Semel, a seventh-grader at Seneca Valley Middle School, says "this year is going to be a turning point in our nation's history - an election that no one will ever forget."

A classmate, Tim Boros, says "you can't say you care about our country and not vote. All non-voters are doing is making the deaths, hardships and struggles of our country's past worthless."

Semel and Boros are too young to vote this year, but they are looking forward with the right attitude to when they will be permitted to cast ballots.

"A vote is a passion, an opinion, a freedom, a gift, a decision, a triumph," Semel wrote in an assignment for her advanced English class. "A vote is all of these things, but is mostly a voice, a voice bursting with excitement - a powerful voice eager and ready to be heard."

"So many have wasted 'the most powerful instrument devised by man,' as said by Lyndon B. Johnson," wrote Boros in his English assignment. "Did you know that more people watched the 'Survivor' finale than voted in the year 2000?"

The opinions of these two students should be kept in mind today by everyone eligible to vote. With polls having continually indicated a contest too close to call, it is important that every voter's choice be officially recorded via the ballot box.

This has not been a presidential race where apathy should have an iota of presence. Both presidential candidates and their running mates campaigned relentlessly, trying to reach as many voters as possible.

The Democratic and Republican campaigns since the parties' respective conventions have been among the hardest-fought that many millions of Americans have witnessed - or are likely to witness - in their lifetimes - and centered on issues that have broad, long-range implications on both the domestic and international fronts.

This is not a more dangerous world than existed four years years ago. The danger that is acknowledged today just didn't reveal itself until that horrific day Sept. 11, 2001.

The domestic issues are just as important as they were four years ago. However, unfortunately, they have been overshadowed by events since the terrorist attacks.

Meanwhile, the ill-conceived notion that "my vote won't change anything" - a point on which Semel focused in her English assignment - should have been expelled from American politics by the closeness of Election 2000. Every vote indeed has the ability to change an election's result, and maybe this year even more so than four years ago, considering the "it can go either way" status of the race going into Election Day.

The polls, which opened today at 7 a.m., will remain open until 8 p.m. That's a 13-hour window of voting opportunity that should be accessible to virtually everyone who has not needed to vote by absentee ballot.

"The revolt of the 13 colonies was a beginning of a quest for greatness," Seneca Valley student Boros wrote.

People exercising the right to vote is indeed a means by which this nation's greatness can be maintained.

Eligible voters should likewise heed the words of Megan Abbate, another Seneca Valley seventh-grader, who stressed that voters "care about democracy" by casting their vote. Megan wrote:

"Vote to keep America safe, strong and good. Vote as a duty to yourself. Vote as a duty to those who died for the right. Vote as a duty to all those who were unfairly prevented from voting. Vote because you care. Vote because you can. Vote because you count."

It's been said that America's voters have a knack for electing the right person for the times. Presumably, such a result will prevail when the final votes are tabulated this time.

- J.R.K.