Still, many McCain supporters on college campuses say theirs is a lonely existence.

“When I walk down the street carrying my campaign materials, people yell at me,” said Katie Nix, 22, the statewide co-chairwoman of Students for McCain who is a senior majoring in molecular biology and French at the University of Wisconsin. “I just keep hearing, ‘Obama! Obama!’ ”

The University of Florida in Gainesville is home to one of the country’s largest McCain student groups, with more than 1,000 members. Some of its volunteers stand for nine hours a day in a central campus plaza, pitching to students and selling T-shirts, their only source of campaign money.

The Obama group on campus, though, has hired a shuttle bus to drive Obama-supporting students to an early voting site 20 minutes away.

“Obviously, we don’t have the resources for that kind of thing,” said Joshua Simmons, 20, the chairman of Gators for McCain. “Right now, we’re just making sure that students know that this organization does exist, and that there are students out there who support McCain.”

As if to punctuate his point, Mr. Simmons was stopped midsentence while walking through campus recently and talking on his cellphone.

“What is that, a robot?” he said, exhaling noisily. “The Obama campaign has a robot set up in the plaza. It’s holding a sign that says ‘Powered by hope.’ Which I don’t think is entirely accurate.”

At a campuswide tailgate affair at Penn State last spring, the Students for McCain doled out $100 for food for supporters, then watched as the Obama tailgaters trotted out Michael Robinson, a football player with the San Francisco 49ers, and Franco Harris, a Penn State alum who went on to the football Hall of Fame. Mr. Natalo was in despair.