ASUA senators discovered yesterday that getting students to the polls is not as easy as offering a shuttle service.

Sen. Kara Harris said ASUA's free shuttle service to the polls was not as successful as senators had hoped because students weren't registered, had forgotten about the elections or couldn't find the time to vote.

From 8 a.m. to 11 a.m., only one student used the shuttle service. After that, only around 15 students took advantage of the shuttle service before ASUA closed it down an hour early at 3 p.m.

The free shuttle, coordinated by Harris, was supposed to pick up students from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. to drive them to voting booths.

It cost ASUA $186.10 to rent the shuttles.

"It was kind of a slow day. A lot of people didn't realize that you need to be registered to vote," Harris said. "I think a lot of people were confused by the fact that you had to be registered in Tucson."

Diana Park, a biology freshman, said she did not vote because she wasn't registered.

"I didn't vote. I'm not registered yet. Hopefully I will be before the presidential election," she said.

Overall, voter turnout was at 38 percent, down from 41 percent a year ago.

Although students who registered today could not vote in the city elections, senators still managed to get about 25 students to fill out the paperwork.

ASUA senators said they also found a lot of students did not even know there were elections today.

"It was kind of hard because a lot of people didn't know about the elections today," Harris said. "I thought that was kind of odd. I want to change that for next year."

Jamie McKenzie, an undeclared freshman, was one of those students who forgot about the elections.

"I totally forgot about it. I haven't even registered to vote," McKenzie said.

Other students said they didn't vote because they didn't have the time.

"I didn't get a chance to vote today. I feel bad about it, but I had class all day," said Jake Gilbert, a linguistics senior.

Not all students stayed away from the polls.

"I believe in voting. I was thinking about it the other day. I was thinking about how many people there are on campus and how much we could make a difference," said Anindita Das, a biochemistry sophomore.

Although their shuttle service was unsuccessful, ASUA senators, who received an additional $40 to cover photocopying expenses for yesterday's services, said they had other goals in mind.

"It's good supporting city council elections, but we wanted to also get students prepared for a year from now and let them know about it," Harris said. "We spent time registering students for next year's presidential elections."

Harris said the approximately 25 students ASUA registered made the day a success, and she is excited about the prospects for next year.

"I'd like to see Tucson become a bigger voting community with such a large university. I hope it's huge next year," Harris said. "I foresee it becoming a really big deal. It's been talked about, getting a poll at the UA."

- Greg Holt contributed to this report.