Ponder machine
[2] Between 1851 and 1950 the office of Sheriff of Madison County was always held by a Republican, except for a single member of the Democratic Party that was elected to one term in 1932.
[3][4] After earning a university degree in soil chemistry, Zeno worked for the United States government on the Manhattan Project during World War II.
In these classes Ponder began to espouse his political beliefs, particularly promoting the desire for a strong Democratic presence in Madison County.
[3] That year E. Y. Ponder ran for the office of sheriff as a Democrat, challenging the Republican incumbent, Hubert Davis.
[10] Denied access to the courthouse facilities, Ponder created an office in the Madison County Jail.
Republicans placed a machine gun outside their jail, and Democrats would drive by at night and throw firecrackers to frighten them.
[8][11] In early January 1951 the Superior Court ruled in Ponder's favor and ordered Davis to vacate his post.
Davis appealed the case to the North Carolina Supreme Court,[9] which affirmed the previous ruling on November 1.
[3] As sheriff, E. Y. Ponder wore a suit instead of a khaki law enforcement uniform and rarely carried a gun.
He was generally lenient towards local offenders who voted for the Democratic Party, but pursued more aggressive action against outsiders.
"[3] Members of the machine assumed posts on county governance boards, allowing the organization to control patronage via the disbursement of jobs and funds.
[3] That year a Republican poll monitor was arrested for assault with a deadly weapon with intent to kill Zeno Ponder.
[23] United States Attorney James M. Baley Jr. reported that he had collected more than 200 allegations of people being bribed for their vote and ballots being improperly notarized.
[25] In November 1962 a Republican poll monitor accused Zeno Ponder of pulling a gun on him during an argument at a voting precinct.
[26] In 1964 the Ponder brothers agreed to back John Jordan Jr. in the Democratic primary election for the office of Lieutenant Governor.
His opponent, Clyde Norton, decried the results as marred by irregularities and called upon the State Board of Elections to initiate an investigation.
When the State Bureau of Investigation attempted to examine Madison County's poll books, the records went missing and were never found.
[37] At the Democratic Party's county convention on May 14, the local committee chairman was absent, so Ponder ran the meeting even though that responsibility should have fallen to the vice chairwoman.
Huff's group filed a complaint with the North Carolina Democratic Party's Credentials and Appeals Committee, bemoaning the impropriety of Zeno's chairmanship and accusing him of dismissing concerns about voting irregularities brought up at the convention.
[41] In the 1984 United States Senate election in North Carolina, Republican incumbent Jesse Helms expressed his fear that Zeno would shift the electoral outcome to the Democratic candidate's favor.
[14] The following year United States Attorney Charles Brewer had him indicted for allegedly profiting off nonpublic information he gleaned from his position on the transportation board.
[13][43] A United States Marshal and Federal Bureau of Investigation agents established an outpost in a store owned by a Republican in Walnut to monitor the election.
[44] That December three Madison County public officials were dismissed, an action anti-Ponder locals attributed to the Ponder machine.
[18] In the late 1980s Brewer launched Project WestVote, an expansive federal investigation into voter fraud in western North Carolina.
Anti-Ponder locals hoped the inquiry would remove the Ponder brothers' dominance from Madison County, while Zeno denounced it as a publicity stunt.
