One by one, former high school dropouts stepped up to fill out voter registration forms at a table in Chicago’s Daley Plaza.

Hundreds of students from the 22 campuses of Youth Connection Charter Schools came downtown to sign up to vote Thursday. Youth Connection Charter Network serves kids who have dropped out of regular Chicago public schools. 

Kevontay Williams is one of them and said the event in Daley plaza helped encourage kids like him to participate in the election. 

“A lot of people my age don’t really care about voting and they don’t think their voice makes a difference, but it really does,” Williams said.

Williams said he’s made up his mind on who he plans to vote for, but still watched last night’s debate.

“I think they both had valid points, but they were kind of naggin’ on each other just a little bit too much,” Williams said.

Organizers of the event say their schools have registered almost 1,000 students in the last month.