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Nov 06, 2024

Election tradition: Voters put stickers on Susan B. Anthony’s headstone

As Americans across the nation cast their votes for the next president of the United States, voters in Rochester, New York are celebrating with a powerful tradition: placing "I voted" stickers on the

As Americans across the nation cast their votes for the next president of the United States, voters in Rochester, New York are celebrating with a powerful tradition: placing "I voted" stickers on the gravestone of famous suffragette Susan B. Anthony, paying homage to her contributions to securing the vote for all citizens.

The tradition, which took off in earnest during and after the 2016 election when Hillary Clinton faced Donald Trump, seems appropriate again in a year when Americans could see the first-ever woman elected to the White House.

Anthony's famously defiant act of voting in the 1872 election has inspired female voters in the 150 years since she gathered a group of like-minded women in front of her Madison Street home and marched them to a nearby polling place.

She was arrested two weeks after casting her vote, as suffrage for women would not come until the 19th Amendment was ratified into the U.S. Constitution in 1920. Even then, Black women and Black Americans in general did not receive universal, federal voting rights and protections until the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

Anthony famously had a friendship with suffragette, anti-lynching and early civil rights activist Ida B. Wells, who was documented as having challenged Anthony's exclusion of Black citizens in the fight for the women's vote.

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Anthony's home, which is now also a museum and polling station, and her grave in Mount Hope Cemetary have become places of pilgrimage for historically disenfranchised voters, especially Rochester-area residents. The Susan B. Anthony Museum & House first became an organization back in 1945, but the dream of becoming a place where people can cast their votes picked up after early voting came to New York in 2020.

This year, Anthony's home became an early voting location for the first time, reported Rochester's Democrat & Chronicle, part of the USA TODAY Network.

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"At the heart of Susan B. Anthony's being was this idea that this democracy could succeed," museum president Deborah Hughes told the D&C. "And to her, it had to be a government of, by and for the people ― for all people. She spent her lifetime working to get more of the people to the ballot box."

The museum saw about 1,400 voters during the first weekend of early voting, the outlet reported.

And, as usual, Anthony's grave was already well on its way to being covered in "I voted" stickers just a few days into early voting. In 2016, as many as 12,000 people visited Anthony's final resting place to honor her work and mark the first time they could cast a vote for Clinton, the first female major-party presidential candidate for president.

The tradition has continued strong since then, with Cemetery manager Jarod Terrell telling the Democrat & Chronicle that he expects to see up to 14,000 visitors through Election Day this year.

Those still planning to make the pilgrimage to place their sticker on Anthony's grave can expect to see cemetery workers and police there today helping to manage long lines and a possible hours-long wait.