ROCHESTER, N.Y. — There are changes this year to the Rochester tradition of placing a sticker on the grave site of Susan B. Anthony. A plexiglass shield now covers the headstone, which in recent years has become a place for people who voted to attach their “I Voted” stickers.
At Mt. Hope Cemetery Monday, city crews blowing leaves signified one sign of the season. The path they cleared at Susan. B. Anthony’s grave site signified another fall tradition.
Hillary Cardin was among those to take part in early voting Monday, before visiting the final resting spot of the suffragist. Placing the voting sticker on the headstone, Cardin felt, was her duty.
“It’s important because we didn't have the right to vote,” said Cardin, of Rochester. “And now we do, and it was based on her hard work and her dedication to it.”
Placing an “I Voted” sticker on the headstone of the woman who fought for women’s right to vote has become an election season ritual. Gretchen Wendt and Jason Brown visited the site Monday. The pair were also here four years ago, when more than 10,000 people visited Anthony’s grave, as Hillary Clinton became the first woman to run for president on a major party ticket.
“I would say it's almost like a trip to Mecca for me,” said Wendt. “Every time I vote in a presidential election, I come here. So, I felt good about voting and wanted to share it with Susan B.”
“There was a great deal of camaraderie,” said Brown, of the 2016 Election Day scene at Anthony’s grave site. “I think people were very hopeful. And now we're hopeful again.”
Plastering a century-plus-old marble marker with stickers, while seen as a tribute, presents problems. That’s why the Friends of Mount Hope Cemetery put a plexiglass cover over Anthony’s grave marker this year.
“I think protection is probably to the good,” said Mariana Rhoads of Rochester. “So I can understand why people would not want any interface between themselves and the actual grave marker.”
Whether this election season brings change, or not, remains to be seen. But a seasonal ritual is now protected.
“I’m proud of being from Susan B. Anthony’s city,” said Brown. “And the entire experience feels very Rochester to me.”