Caption by Ashmar Mandou

Chicago students, residents, leaders, and elected officials gathered at Daley Plaza Tuesday morning to kick-off the annual National Voter Registration Day, to raise awareness of voter registration opportunities and to celebrate the passing of automatic voter registration, which will go into full effect in 2018. Chicago Votes, a non-profit designed to increasing civic engagement among young voters. “When Chicago Votes first started in 2012, youth civic participation in Illinois was dismal. Back then, we only had paper voter registration forms, the lines at polling locations were long, and pointless voter registration deadlines disenfranchised thousands of people. Now, voting in Illinois has been modernized thanks to our work as members of the Just Democracy Illinois coalition,” said Stevie Valles, executive director of Chicago Votes. For more information, visit www.nationalvoterregistrationday.org.