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Make sure to exercise your right

It was exactly three weeks ago — on Oct. 18 — that the Wall Street Journal reported on a Journal/NBC News survey that indicated voters were tuning out the contentious presidential campaign and that a low turnout at the polls today was likely.

That was when Democratic standard-bearer Hillary Clinton seemed to be coasting toward a victory that might be unprecedented in scope. However, public reaction to the FBI re-investigation into Clinton emails has closed the gap between Clinton and Republican Donald Trump, and it’s now impossible to say with reasonable certainty who will win.

All that considered, it’s important for every registered voter to cast a ballot today.

Even if you’re disgusted with the two candidates and their campaigns and are puzzled about which candidate might lead the country better over the next four years, visit your polling place and make a last-second decision — even if you’re holding your nose while you’re doing it.

Don’t let this opportunity to have a voice in the election pass you by.

Keep in mind that your participation isn’t just important from the standpoint of the presidency. All registered Pennsylvania voters will have the opportunity to elect a U.S. senator and fill U.S. House seats. Beyond that, many voters will be voting on state Senate seats, and all state House seats are up for grabs.

Also on the state level, there are decisions regarding the important offices of attorney general, auditor general and treasurer, and voters will decide the fate of a proposed constitutional amendment that would change the mandatory judicial retirement age to 75 from 70.

Don’t let the small size of the ballot demean its importance. The importance of this election cannot be overstated.

When the counting of today’s votes is completed, much will be said and there will be many analyses. Many millions of people — those in the losing presidential camp and even some aligned with the victorious camp — will be feeling great angst over what might lie ahead, having seen the troubling divisiveness that the campaign has spawned.

Some people are likely to proclaim unfortunately that the winner “is not my president,” resurrecting an unpatriotic assertion some targeted at Barack Obama following his election to the White House.

It’s important that Americans adopt an attitude of healing and unity in the days ahead, not continue the campaign rancor that even caused concerns in some workplaces and within religious congregations.

On Nov. 1, Wall Street Journal columnist Gerald F. Seib focused on the impact of the FBI email bombshell and said the ugly election “may have become even less likely to produce an uplifting outcome.”

“It’s bound to make what figured to be a nasty environment (in Washington) worse,” he wrote.

Like the Oct. 18 voter-turnout prediction, it’s to be hoped that Seib’s observation proves wrong and that the nation can “turn the corner” toward respect, bipartisanship, compromise and an all-encompassing pursuit of what will benefit and protect America, not undermine it.

But such a mission begins with voters’ determination to make their voices heard today by way of their ballots. Don’t watch the election results tonight lamenting that you should have voted.

Frustration over the way the presidential and other campaigns have been waged, and political commercial fatigue, are not justifications for staying home.

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