Plaque Dedicated on Abbot Kinney Boulevard

Sylvia Levin spent six days a week, four hours a day, registering voters.

Saturday was Abbot Kinney Boulevard day.

“Have you registered to vote?” Levin would ask passers-by, sitting behind her table in front of the hedge at what is now a clothing store.  

Levin deftly took “no” answers and turned them into "yes" voter registrations. In 36 years, Levin alone registered more than 47,000 Californians—a record-setting feat in California, and the United States.

Abbot Kinney Boulevard had been one of her favorite spots, said her daughter Susan Levin. Sylvia talked to everybody, including a local television journalist named Bill Rosendahl, who went for coffee in Venice on Saturday mornings after taping his show in Santa Monica.

This Saturday, Rosendahl returned to that spot on Abbot Kinney Boulevard. He came this time as a Los Angeles city councilman to help dedicate a commemorative plaque in honor of Levin, who passed away in 2009 from stroke complications.

“She went out of her way to get people to register, and it was so healthy to see that,” Rosendahl said. “She was an extraordinary believer in democracy.”

The plaque will be mounted on the side wall of , overlooking the place occupied by Levin and her table for decades.  

Rosendahl was joined Saturday by Councilman Paul Koretz, Levin’s son Chuck and daughter Susan, and more than 50 friends and family of Levin’s. 

At the sidewalk ceremony, Levin was remembered for her fierce determination, dedication and her ability to out-walk just about anyone.

“She was just better than anybody else,” said longtime family friend Bill Freeman. “She believed in what she was doing.”

Chuck Levin, founder of First Vote and a voter-registering force in his own right, first suggested to his mother in 1973 that she take a test to become a deputy registrar.

At the time, Chuck had been hired for a project to register students in California. Two years earlier, 18-year-olds had received the right to vote.

He needed reliable and hardworking people to help. The first person he asked was his mother, a single parent with a strong sense of determination. 

“It was only temporary, only for three months,” Levin said. “But then it ended up that she never stopped.”

Levin aimed to make it clear that registering to vote was special, said David Moring, a member of the Venice Chamber of Commerce. He met her while registering 18-year-old voters in Westwood years ago.

“It felt right for her to devote a lot of time to it,” Chuck Levin said.

Weekly, she would pack up her gear and get on several buses to make it to Malibu’s post office, said Bruce Klein, who graduated from high school the same year as Chuck Levin.

A broken hip, a stroke and colon cancer failed to stand in her way. She registered voters right up until her death at age 91. 

Koretz met Sylvia Levin in the early 1970s while working on political campaigns. She became a surrogate mother to him, he said, inviting him to family gatherings—Passover, Hannukah and other holidays.

At such occasions, Koretz met the new friends she had made that year while registering voters. 

She also served as his walking partner for several of his campaigns. The two tag-teamed the process of knocking on doors.

Even when he got a big lead, the sprightly woman in her 70s would catch up.

“She could walk circles around me at that age,” Koretz said. “Just a remarkable, wonderful person.”