Will young Paul, Huckabee backers stay with GOP?

"It was icy. I fell down three times. I had bruises all over my legs, but I kept going because I believe in his message," she said. "I believe in what he has to offer America. As a young person, I wasn't just going to sit back and watch it all go by."

After McCain collected enough delegates to clinch the nomination in March, Huckabee's site traffic dropped to 27,300 unique visitors and Paul's to 147,629 in April.

And where those visitors went may be an indication of whether they will remain interested enough to vote in November.

The majority of visitors to Huckabee's site stopped checking political sites, according to data from Compete.com.

Just 10 percent of visitors who had checked Huckabee's site at least three time between Jan. 1 and March 5 took a look at McCain's site in June. Seven percent went to Obama. That month only 15 percent checked one of 10 top conservative blogs and 10 percent checked one of 10 top liberal blogs.

A greater but still small percentage of those interested in Paul remained involved in political Web sites, according to Compete.com. In June, 18 percent of visitors to Paul's site before McCain's nomination read at least one major conservative blog and 22 percent read at least one major liberal blog. Six percent went to McCain and 8 percent to Obama.

Another indication of whether young Republicans are as engaged in the election now many be seen in measures of interest among voters between 18 and 34 years old reflected in an NBC News/Wall Street Journal Hart-Newhouse Poll in mid-July. A majority of young Obama supporters, 53 percent, rated their enthusiasm for the campaign at the highest level, 10, while only 48 percent of young McCain supporters said they were as excited.

Among young voters with the most enthusiasm about the election, 59 support Obama and 30 percent support McCain.

Shjegstad said she does not feel the same desire to rally support for McCain.

"McCain will get my vote," she said. "But if he puts Huckabee on the ticket, he gets my money and he gets my physical labor."