ELKHART — The polls and pundits, by and large, say Indiana is safely red, Mitt Romney country.

Most of the action in the U.S. presidential contest is taking place in battleground states that pollsters say are still up for grabs, like Ohio and Florida.

That doesn’t mean voters here don’t care. Jean Farrell of Elkhart, for one, has been pounding the pavement on behalf of President Obama, experiencing a few abruptly closed doors along the way from people who apparently don’t share her enthusiasm. “I am very passionately for Obama,” she said.

Dale Stickel, head of the Elkhart County Republican Party, is a Romney backer, no question. Obama “promised hope and change and it’s getting more hopeless all the time,” Stickel said.

That said, Stickel doesn’t report much action locally on behalf of Romney, and, indeed, even if Elkhart County, as a whole, tilts Republican, Obama seems to have a more passionate core of backers. In conjunction with the Elkhart County Democratic Party, a fiery contingent of Obama volunteers — Farrell included — is doing what it can to bolster the vote tally here for the Democrat.

“Romney’s campaign might implode,” said Obama volunteer Phyllis Stutzman of Goshen, taking a break from phone canvassing at the Democratic Party campaign office off U.S. 33 in the Dunlap area. “It gets a little bit worse every day, so we’re doing what we can, for sure.”

On the GOP side, the bigger grassroots efforts seem to be for Republicans Richard Mourdock, running against Democrat Joe Donnelly in a tight fight for the U.S. Senate, and Jackie Walorski. Walorski and Democrat Brendan Mullen are running for Indiana’s 2nd District U.S. House seat.

“It’s almost assumed everyone will vote for Romney,” said Bob Moore, an Elkhart County tea party activist actively campaigning for several GOP candidates. GOP activists here see the polls favoring Romney in Indiana “and are saying, ‘OK, let’s go on to the next race.’”

Like Stickel, Moore’s sense is that Elkhart County voters, on whole, are leery of Obama given things like the uncertain economy and what he sees as overregulation of business, amplified by the Democrat. “Things did not work out as promised,” Moore said.

ROMNEY: IN ‘DECENT SHAPE’

Perusing the available polling data and various wonks’ forecasts, there seems little likelihood that Obama will take Indiana, as he did in the 2008. Obama squeaked past Republican John McCain that year, the first time a Democratic presidential hopeful had won here since Lyndon Johnson in 1964.

The New York Times’ Five Thirty Eight blog, for instance, calls Indiana “safe” for Romney, noting that the Republican has generated 49.8 percent support in polls, on average, compared to 41.3 percent for Obama. It gives Romney a 94 percent chance of winning the state. “Romney is in pretty decent shape in Indiana,” said Stickel.

And in fact, neither campaign seems to have much apparatus here, more focused, presumably, on the swing states.

The Indiana Republican Party is spearheading whatever Romney efforts there are, according to state GOP spokesman Pete Seat. Volunteers at the state GOP’s 11 Victory Centers around Indiana are “walking door-to-door, we’re all working together to elect Gov. Romney and the whole Indiana Republican ticket,” Seat said in an e-mail.

He didn’t allude to any efforts geared specifically to Romney, but noted the Republican and his running mate, Paul Ryan, have made seven visits to Indiana between them this election cycle.

Obama has someone helping with campaign efforts in Indiana, according to the Indiana Democratic Party. Contacted, she said higher ups in the campaign handle press inquries, but neither she nor they responded to a list of questions submitted by the Elkhart Truth about the statewide effort.

‘LABOR OF LOVE’

No doubt, it’s not like it was in the 15-month period leading up to and following the 2008 vote, when Obama visited Elkhart County four times.

“2008 was such a special wonderful thing,” said Farrell, alluding to the strong sentiments Obama inspired that year among backers. “That was almost magical.”

But even with polling now giving Romney the edge in Indiana, Obama backers here in Elkhart County, at least the hardcore ones, aren’t daunted.

“I just don’t buy that,” said Don Blosser, another Obama volunteer, alluding to the presumption that Indiana will go to Romney. Like Farrell, the retired Goshen College faculty member was speaking after a meeting of Obama supporters at the Democratic Party office in Dunlap. “It’s not a cakewalk by any means.”

The Obama efforts — complementing campaigning for other Democratic candidates — are focused on phone canvassing, registering would-be voters and knocking on doors. “A lot of it is trying to encourage people who are pro-Obama to speak up and act,” said Blosser.

Charles Mumwaw of Goshen, also at the meeting, paints a scenario that would have Obama winning the state. If the Romney campaign stumbles or the Republican “goes toxic” due to a misstep or some dramatic revelation, some GOP voters here could cast their ballots instead for Gary Johnson, the Libertarian hopeful who will also be on the ballot. That shift, argues Mumaw, co-leader of the Elkhart County Obama effort and clad in an Obama hat and T-shirt, could tilt the race in Indiana to the Democrat.

Whatever the case, he described his involvement as a “labor of love.” Mumaw is a social studies teacher “from way back” and it’s his “civic responsibility” to act on his political convictions, be involved.

Dan Shenk, another Obama backer on hand, gleefully imagines a Democratic victory here. Win or not, he won’t be dissuaded from his efforts.

“Even if the national campaign has written off Indiana, we in Elkhart County haven’t,” he said.