ROCHESTER, N.Y. — After casting their ballots Tuesday, thousands of women are expected to visit the grave of one of the civil rights activists who made their vote possible.
Susan B. Anthony, one of history's most famous suffragists, was arrested for illegally voting in the 1872 presidential election. At a two-day trial in Ontario County, New York, the judge directed the jury to find Anthony guilty without any deliberations.
"When Anthony refused to pay a $100 fine and court costs, the judge did not sentence her to prison time, which ended her chance of an appeal," the National Park Service later wrote of the trial. "An appeal would have allowed the suffrage movement to take the question of women’s voting rights to the Supreme Court, but it was not to be."
Anthony died in 1906, several years before the 19th Amendment was ratified in 1920. Nicknamed the "Anthony Amendment" in her honor, it prevented Americans from being denied the right to vote based on their sex.
It would take another 45 years before President Lyndon Johnson signed the 1965 Voting Rights Act, prohibiting racial discrimination in elections and, thus, expanding federal protections to many voters of color.
At the 2024 Democratic National Convention, Vice President Kamala Harris became only the second woman to be nominated for president by one of the nation's two major political parties.
When former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was running for president in 2016, voters flocked to Rochester, New York, putting their "I Voted" stickers on Anthony's gravestone.
Mount Hope Cemetery said it was ready for more than 10,000 voters to line up at Anthony's grave on Election Day 2024. The grave marker has been covered with a clear protective shield to prevent damage from all the stickers expected.
Many early voters had already placed their stickers at the site in the days leading up to Tuesday. When the plastic covering filled with stickers, it was swapped with a new one to allow voters to continue leaving more stickers in the symbolic nod to Anthony.
This year, the nearby Susan B. Anthony Museum & House was actually an early voting location.
