" Research has long suggested that over the course of a campaign, partisans come home to their party’s candidate."

sure. and, i don't dispute that there was a solidifying of conservative support for trump in the final weeks. but, this doesn't provide the margin. if trump caught up exactly to romney by taking votes back from clinton, and he statistically basically did in the end, then he'd lose by the same amount that romney did, right?

i know that they talk about shifting to third parties, but those margins don't add up, either.

the question you need to answer is about turnout. clinton lost because there was low turnout amongst her supporters. this is despite early media reports that there was record high turnout in early voting. so, why were clinton supporters unable or unwilling to vote for her?

http://fivethirtyeight.com/features/voters-really-did-switch-to-trump-at-the-last-minute/