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INDEX
Vol. 178, Number 184
© 2008
Detroit Free Press Inc.
Printed in the U.S.Wayne,
Oakland &
Macomb counties
75¢Elsewhere
50¢
Think one or two votes don’t
matter?
Barbara Dobb, Gary Blash and
Joe Hune would beg to differ.
Today, a record turnout of about
5 million Michigan voters are ex-
pected to participate in what prom-
ises to be a historic election.
Still, more than 2 million regis-
tered state voters will sit it out, not
helping choose the next president,
or who represents them in Con-
gress or the state House or whether
sick people can use marijuana for
pain relief.
Consider these stories before
you decide you’re too busy to bother
or too impatient to wait in line:
BARBARA DOBB
Daughter has mom’s
instinct to thank
In 1990, Dobb was among seven
Republicans running for the 24th
District state House of Representa-
tives seat in western Oakland Coun-
ty. The campaign had been grueling
and Dobb estimated she knocked on
10,000 doors before the Aug. 7 pri-
mary.
Dobb, 59, who lived in Union
Lake at the time, worked the dis-
trict with volunteers including her
father, John Dobb, 84, of Commerce
Township. But her mother, Vivian
Dobb, 84, didn’t really like the door-
to-door campaign grind and she
wasn’t ready to leave the family’s
vacation home as the last vestiges of
RICK NEASE/Detroit Free Press
THE
POWEROF
ONEDon’t think your
single vote really
matters? These
people would
beg to differ
By KATHLEEN GRAY
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER
See VOTES, 11A
WHY THE PISTONS DEALT
BILLUPS FOR IVERSON
MITCH ALBOM
PLUS MORE
ANALYSIS, STATS
ON THE
NUGGETS
TRADE
SPORTS, 1D
Despite heavy discounting and falling
gas prices, U.S. monthly sales of new cars
and trucks sunk to their lowest level in 25
years in October — a depressing perfor-
mance that fore-
shadows more in-
tense financial loss-
es, cash burns and
production cuts for
Detroit’s automak-
ers.
However, the
lousy results might
also strengthen
their case for gov-
ernment assistance.
U.S. consumers,
who have been rat-
tled for months by
the falling values of
their homes and re-
tirement savings, by
political uncertainty
and by a global fi-
nancial crisis,
bought just 838,156
new cars and trucks
last month.
That is a breathtaking decline of 31.9%
from the same month a year ago, and the
second straight month below a million new
car and truck sales.
Every major automaker posted double-
digit declines. Sales plummeted 45.1% for
General Motors Corp., 34.9% for Chrysler
Sales
drop to
25-year
worstWith automakers reeling,
October figures back up
urgency for federal aid
By SARAH A. WEBSTER
FREE PRESS BUSINESS WRITER
-34.9%-34.9%34.9%
-45.1%
-30.2%
-25.2%
-23.0%
-30.2%30.2%%
-33.0%
Auto sales
-31.9%Overall
industry
T Automakers up the sales incentives. 8A
See AUTOS, 8A
Breaking results
on national, state
and local races
Live TV from
Free Press
newsroom
An interactive
map to track
the vote
Videos, photo galleries,
blogs, columns, editorials
and reader forums
FREEP.COM IS TODAY’S ELECTION CENTRAL!
POLLS OPEN AT 7 A.M., CLOSE AT 8 P.M.
Here are the states to watch while following the presidential returns to-
night. And remember, 270 Electoral College votes are needed for either
Democrat Barack Obama or Republican John McCain to win.
7 P.M.: Polls close in three battleground
states: Indiana, Florida and Virginia.
Returns will start trickling in soon after.
Florida’s always important, but the other
two are Republican bastions ( President
George W. Bush won Indiana by 20 points
four years ago) that appear to be in play.
Obama’s best chance to pick up a red state
in this group is Virginia. If he gets one of
the others, the race may be over.
7:30 P.M.: Ohio polls close but don’t ex-
pect to see much for hours. McCain needs
to hang on here to have a chance, or take a
traditionally big blue state in its place.
SHORTLY AFTER 8 P.M.: Polls close in a
bunch of key states — including Missouri,
Pennsylvania and New Hampshire. Mis-
souri has a history of picking presidential
winners, but if recent polls are correct,
Obama could win without it and McCain
needs it, but Pennsylvania may be the big
blue-state prize McCain must claim.
8:30 P.M.: North Carolina polls close. If
Obama wins here, we could be looking at a
blowout.
LATER: It may take late West Coast poll
closings to put a candidate over the top, but
watch Colorado (polls close at 9 p.m.) and
Nevada (10 p.m.) carefully — Obama leads
in each and, if he wins, he could give up
Ohio and Florida and still get the victory. If
McCain does better than expected in tradi-
tional battleground states and Virginia, the
White House could be his with wins in the
two Western states.
By Todd Spangler
WHAT TO WATCH FORDon’t
forget
to vote!
T Go to www
.michigan
.gov/vote to
find out your
polling place.
T No campaign
buttons, T-
shirts or hats
inside polling
places. More
guidelines, 11A
Inside: Election
night scorecard
T When results
are expected,
who’s favored,
how it all adds
up. 10A
T Get ready, and
be patient. 1C
T Obama’s
grandmother
dies. 11A
KILPATRICK CASE DEFENSE
Lawyers must
explain fees
U.S. attorneys give lawyers
for ex-Detroit Mayor
Kwame Kilpatrick, his fa-
ther and ex-aide Christine
Beatty until Monday to say
if they were paid by political
or nonprofit funds. 3A
Kwame
Kilpatrick
Merger is about
limiting damage
TOM WALSH, 1B
F01A_04_2D_X#color#broad#single