In his 35 years as a Republican representative to the Cambridge Election Commission, Edward J. Samp Jr. has overseen nine presidential elections, 17 city council races and countless primaries.

But tonight, the city's Republicans will choose a successor to the "institutional memory" of the commission, who at age 76 says he has decided to retire.

"It's time that I got out," Samp says. "I'm not as good as I was physically and mentally 20 or 30 years ago. We can always use fresh blood."

As one of four members of the Election Commission, Samp has supervised Cambridge's notoriously complicated elections, overseen voter registration programs, administered Cambridge's ethics ordinance and rewritten local ballot questions, among other duties.

Colleagues say Samp has brought to municipal government both a passion for elections and a keen knowledge of detail.

"You always had a sense that Ed knows where all the bones are buried," says Election Commissioner Darlene G. Bonislawski.

Former Mayor Alice K. Wolf says Samp "seemed very attuned to the democratic process."

"He's been very active as a citizen in Cambridge," says former Mayor Alfred E. Vellucci. "He's done a smooth-running outstanding job in directing the counting of elections in Cambridge."

David L.K. Trumbull, chair of the Republican City Committee, says Samp's intelligent counsel will be difficult to replace.

"He is the institutional memory of the commission," Trumbull says. "He has an incredible memory for detail. He's a man who loves the intricacies of elections, thinking through what are the implications of proposed changes to the laws or to the procedures."

Fellow Election Commissioner Artis Spears says that Samp's experience is one of his greatest assets.

"By being on the commission longer than all of us together, he's contributed quite a bit," Spears says. "He's shared everything with us. They don't make them like Ed Samp anymore."

A World War II veteran and Harvard Law School graduate, Samp first sought to join the Election Commission because injuries he sustained in the Battle of Okinawa made it difficult for him to hold a job with regular hours.

"A bomb went off underneath my battle station and tore off part of my head, which may explain to some people some of my idiosynchrocies," Samp says. "I came back and finished up at Harvard Law School, but it became evident that I was not going to be able to do a 9 to 5 job because I physically wasn't strong enough to do that."

Samp says he chose to involve himself in Cambridge's notoriously convoluted political scene out of respect for "the sanctity and honesty and integrity of the voting process."