In 2008, 6,256 people voted in polling stations on campus. In city council elections a year later, only 36 showed up.

“Across all demographics, people don’t tend to vote in nonpresidential year elections,” said Joe Duffy, president of the MSU College Democrats. “It’s not on the news as much; you’re not being barraged with commercials.”

For both elections, nearly all of those who voted in the four on-campus locations — Brody Hall, Shaw Hall, West Akers Hall and East Wilson Hall — were between the ages of 18 and 21. The number of registered voters in each precinct dropped by several hundred voters from 2008 to 2009. In 2009, 11 residents voted in the Brody precinct, seven residents in the Akers precinct, 12 in East Wilson precinct and six in Shaw precinct.

Off-campus neighborhoods such as Oakhill and Bailey, where students live in rental houses and apartments, were just as low. Fewer than 10 people in each neighborhood between the ages of 18 and 21 voted in 2009.

“There may not be an awareness (among students) of the impact local government has on our day-to-day life,” East Lansing City Clerk and Assistant City Manager Marie McKenna said.

Records for the 2010 midterm election were not available for comparison Sunday.

From the beginning of the semester to the registration deadline, the College Democrats, along with the East Lansing-based Practical Political Consulting Inc., registered about 2,800 new voters.

Because of the increase, the city upped the number of ballots they ordered to handle a possible influx, McKenna said.

But Mark Grebner, a consultant at Practical Political Consulting Inc., said he is targeting voters for the 2012 election and doesn’t expect many more student voters to show up Tuesday.

“(The challengers) want to lock the door after the barn has been locked,” Grebner said, explaining the candidates have spent most of their time voicing distaste for city issues that already have been decided.

Although they plan to start gearing up for next year’s presidential election, the MSU College Republicans often have found efforts to register voters in off-years yields few results, said Brynn Boyd, the club’s vice chairwoman.

“A lot of people like to be registered at home,” she said.

Political science freshman Siobhan Canty said when she registers to vote, she plans to do so in her hometown, because she knows the political history better. Still, policies in a college town can have a larger effect on everyday life, she said.

“It’s a city for our age,” Canty said. “I think it does affect us a little bit more.”