Because there are a lot of folks who don't understand the most basic use of statistics, even the basic use and misuse of simple percentages. California would explain a significant chunk of the 'missing' votes.
We'll still have a dropoff from 2008 when all the votes are in, but smaller than those currently being discussed.
We didn't have the final totals for 2008 until after Thanksgiving Day. There are literally millions of votes out there that will be posted, which will give us a better picture of what happened. Having been involved in the VA effort,including ORCA, we did a great job in getting out our voters.
In 2008 Obama won VA with 1,959,532 to McCain's 1,725,005. In 2012, so far with 97% of the vote counted, Obama has 1,885,952 to Romney's 1,773,982. Romney already has 50,000 more votes than McCain had total.
Kaine running for the senate has 30,000 more votes than Obama has and Allen has 36,000 less than Romney.
We will see how the final vote comes out, but I cannot fault Romney in VA for getting out the vote. Here in Fairfax County we reduced Obama's margin of victory from 110,000 to 90,000. Obama got 50,000 less than last time and we had 27,000 less for the GOP.