In Iran, they're taking to the streets and being bloodied by club-wielding thug police to fight for the right to free and fair elections.

Elsewhere, people walk for miles and stand for hours for the right to cast a ballot - if they even have that right: Most of the world's 6 billion souls do not.

In Augusta, they're putting on a special one-question election today that will take about five seconds to vote for on a computer screen, if you waste about four of those seconds.

And yet, Board of Elections Executive Director Lynn Bailey predicts a 10 or 12 percent turnout. What others would die for, 90 percent of us will throw away today.

Yet, imagine if you could change your life for the better with those five seconds. Wouldn't you?

Well, you do have the chance to change the community for the better - that quickly, that easily.

Augusta voters will decide today whether to extend the county's 1-cent special purpose local option sales tax beyond its fall 2010 expiration.

Again, it's not a new tax; it's an extension of the current one. Yet, it will fix roads and bridges, refurbish buildings and provide the community a litany of improvements. One penny at a time.

We've watched this process closely. We've seen the diligence and the compromise and consensus that went into it at City Hall. The size of the SPLOST package - $184 million - is responsible and reasonable.

And we've watched as the community's most positive, visionary civic activists have pushed hard for passage.

We believe they are right. And we hope their spirit will prevail today, and that you will join them in voting in favor of the SPLOST extension.

We hope you think enough of Augusta - and the hard-won right to vote - to take just a few seconds of your time.

If turnout predictions are accurate, there won't be any line. And your vote will matter that much more.

Say "Yes" today for Augusta.