There is perhaps nothing more quintessentially or patriotically American than serving one’s community as an election official.

Two local election officials, Easby “Buddy” King of Gloucester, and Mary Marshall of Mathews, have decades of such service under their belts, with no plans to stop anytime soon.

King, a Maryland native, retired from a 33-year career at Xerox in 1999 and moved to Gloucester along with his wife, Eileen. Shortly after moving, the two went to the registrar’s office to register to vote, and Eileen, who was then-registrar Carole Sekula’s cousin, happened to mention that her husband had served for 10 years as an election official in Maryland.

“By the time I left,” said King, “I was signed up to work the polls.”

At that time, the registrar’s office was on the court green, he said, and it was equipped with three desks, one for Sekula, one for her only employee, and one for a volunteer, who happened to be Sekula’s mother.

“There was barely room to turn around,” he said.

The voting machines in Virginia were exactly like the ones in Maryland when King first served. The voter stepped inside a booth and pulled a lever to close the privacy curtain, then used toggle switches to cast their ballots directly into a machine. There was no paper trail. Later, Gloucester switched to using paper ballots once again.

For the first 21 years, King worked the polls in the Petsworth District at Salem Precinct in Petsworth Elementary School, his own polling place. After a few years, he became assistant chief election official, then a few years later he became precinct chief, serving in that capacity for a decade. As the precinct’s chief official, King would be responsible for putting the election machines together and getting them up and running, making sure the books and computers were on-site, assigning people to their stations, and handling any situations that might arise, such as a voter being in the wrong precinct or a ballot being rejected by the machine because it’s marked wrong.

King recalled working the polls during the Republican primary election in 2011, when an earthquake hit Louisa County and caused tremors for hundreds of miles, including in Gloucester.

“We felt the tables, chairs and desks move, and we saw the light fixtures moving on the ceiling,” he said. “The first thing we did was question whether that really just happened. Was that me, or did everybody else in the room feel it too?”

King and the assistant chief had all the other election officials and the few voters who were in the building exit and kept them outside until they could make sure everything was safe. But the two of them stayed in the building to make sure the machines remained secure. He said they called the registrar’s office for instructions, but it took a half-hour to get through because “so did every other chief.”

“I kept looking at faces,” said King, “and everybody had that ‘What was that?’ look.” Eventually, they were cleared to allow voters back inside and resume the election.

During the entire 26 years King has served, he said there has only been one recount. The election chiefs were all asked to run every ballot through the machine again, he said, hand-feeding each ballot. He couldn’t recall if the tally was exactly the same, but said, smiling, “We didn’t have to go back and do it again.”

King said that the voters at Petsworth were good people who always took things in stride and didn’t get excited if there was a long line or some other delay.

“There’s never been a critical or crisis situation,” he said, “but there’s always the concern that people have a good experience.”

The same has held true since 2020, when early voting went into effect and King was assigned to work at the registrar’s office during the 40-day early voting window rather than at a particular polling location. Instead of just one long day, King now serves multiple days, but usually just a four-hour shift rather than all day. During this year’s primary, he said, he worked 18 or 19 days. But the office today is modern and spacious and pleasant, he said, “the difference between night and day.”

King said that Gloucester Director of Elections and General Registrar Bobbi Morgan “goes the extra mile to make sure everything is done right and that the voter can feel good about voting in Gloucester.”

One point of pride for King is that his son, James King, decided to become an election official over a decade ago, and he also continues to serve—in the Petsworth District at Salem Precinct in Petsworth Elementary School.

Mary Marshall

Mary Marshall, 79, has spent over three decades serving the community as an election official, beginning in 1993, when Jeanette Tomlinson was the voter registrar. She has always worked in the Westville District polling station, first at the historic courthouse on Court Street and later at Thomas Hunter Middle School.

Marshall recalled the large books prepared by Tomlinson that were the record-keeping method In the ’90s. She said she and fellow election officials Muriel Brooks, Ann Davis and Marnee Bell would get to the historic courthouse at 5 a.m. and Tomlinson would have everything ready—the book, ballots, pens, and voting booths. With some elections, people would be lined up outside the door, she said.

Eventually, the voting precinct moved to the school, but the voters remained the same, often Marshall’s neighbors.

“It’s always good seeing the voters every time,” she said. “Some you only see once a year.”

She particularly enjoys seeing students of her husband’s, the late Kenneth Marshall, who passed away last year.

Marshall recalled some of the chief election officials she has served under—Clayton Moughon, Ted Broderson, Dave Shuber—as well as their election routine of setting up the machines the day before. She said she has served primarily as an election greeter, meeting the people, checking to make sure they’re in the right district, and giving them a sample ballot to peruse while waiting to vote.

“It’s always a pretty good group,” she said of the voters. “I enjoy doing it.”

Marshall said she also serves as an election official because “I think it’s one of my duties.”

“It helps the community,” she said.

Marshall emphasized that people should vote.

“So many people don’t vote and then talk about how it turned out,” she said. “That’s not good. You need to vote. It’s a right you have.”