I’m going to guess it was a lot of Ron Paul voters. They didn’t like Obama. They didn’t like what happened at the convention and they said screw it and didn’t vote. Look at it like a hidden “Perot” vote that cost Bush against Clinton. There’s also a lot of people out there that think the system is broken and don’t think anyone can fix it. They’ve given up.
It was white, working class men who think that Obama doesn’t care about them because they are white men and that Romney doesn’t care about them because he’s a rich man. My brother didn’t vote because of that reason. He said it didn’t matter because neither of them gave a sh!t about him.
A lot of Ron Paul stalwarts didn't vote (or voted for Gary Johnson), but I don't think they account for that many voters.
Look at it like a hidden “Perot” vote that cost Bush against Clinton. There’s also a lot of people out there that think the system is broken and don’t think anyone can fix it. They’ve given up.
That's probably closer. Think rural voters in areas in economic decline. They're conservative in many things, but all this talk about millionaire Romney and Bain capital really turned them off. They might have been Perot voters in the Nineties, or small "c" conservatives who weren't enthusiastic about Reagan in the Eighties because of farm forclosures.