Hundreds Flood Women’s Suffrage Pioneer Susan B. Anthony’s Gravesite With ‘I Voted’ Stickers

With all of the vitriol around the 2016 presidential election, it’s become easy to forget its historic implications. Love her or hate her, Hillary Clinton’s nomination means she’s the closest a woman has ever been to the presidency of the United States.

The fact that Clinton is on the ballot is quite a feat, since women only gained the right to vote less than 100 years ago. With that in mind, it’s easy to see why many have made a pilgrimage to the grave of suffragette Susan B. Anthony after casting their ballot.

Volunteers opened the gravesite before dawn, and as the day’s gone on, the tombstone of the longtime crusader for women’s right to vote has been covered in the “I Voted” stickers that are commonly given to citizens after they cast their vote. Many of the visitors (numbers had ballooned past 300 by just 9:00 a.m.) have been women and young girls, and most have had visceral reactions to seeing Anthony’s final resting place today.

Gillian Paris of Brighton told USA Today, “I’m voting for the first woman president. As a woman, I can vote because of the sacrifices she made.”

Voter Jodi Atkin continued the same theme. “I never cried when I filled out my ballot before. But I realized my daughters — and I have three of them — have the right to vote for a woman. It made me cry.”

Nora Rubel, director of the University of Rochester’s Susan B. Anthony Institute visited the grave this morning. Her statement seems to sum up the feelings of many who were there.

“I have two daughters. We went to the polls together and we wanted to come here together and put our stickers on the grave. It’s an historic time to choose to come. It’s an amazing moment.”