First, from what I saw, the sources were all pollsters that extrapolated their conclusion based on the info they gained in polls. GIGO. In an extremely tight race how many non-voters are going to admit that they wer apathetic? None. It's easier to save face by claiming that they were just about ready to hop in the truck and go to the polls, but dadgummit, the TV said that Gore had already won Florida, so there was no sense even bothering to vote for congress, judges, or other ballot issues.
Second, I have to repeat this, you seem no to know much, if anything, about the panhandle. If there was 10k voters who would have but didn't, why was there not one single interview first or secondhand, with in the area with an aggrieved voter? I never saw/heard/read any. In my business travels and in my political travels I never met or even heard of anyone who even knew of anyone who failed to vote because of the early call.
If you rely on the media (that wasn't there and did their research by remote control) tehn you must also be ready to believe everything else the media said about the recount fiasco. I can tell you, since I was there at the courthouse in Tallahassee (the last of three trips) when the SCOTUS stopped the recounts, that what the media showed and what was happening were two different realities.
I lived there, worked there, and rallied there. Or you can take the words of those that weren't.
I never saw/heard/read any. In my business travels and in my political travels I never met or even heard of anyone who even knew of anyone who failed to vote because of the early call.
Call me crazy but I will take the 5 published sources over the word of an anonymous dork posting on a public Internet Forum saying he spoke to a bunch of people in the Panhandle.