Boys on the Bus

As sure as early voting is in our midst, Fate Thomas has the vans rolling. Continuing a long tradition of getting voters—especially the poor and elderly—to the polls, the former Davidson County sheriff is working with fellow ex-con and former state election coordinator David Collins, whose company, Votertrac, offers get-out-the-vote services to candidates.

In the current election, Votertrac is working most closely with mayoral candidate Richard Fulton. The company provides needy voters transportation to the polls, then hands them a sample ballot, on which Fulton’s name, along with several others, has been prominently circled in red. “The candidates circled in red made this ride to vote available for you today,” the ballot reads.

The only other candidates circled on the Votertrac ballot are at-large Metro Council candidates David Briley, Adam Dread, and Howard Gentry Jr. The ballot includes 21 candidates in the at-large race, and voters are allowed to choose five. No candidate was circled in the race for vice mayor. According to various at-large Council candidates, some of them were approached to buy into the operation; others weren’t.

Dread, whose financial disclosure will eventually show he paid $2,000 for the voter-ride service, says he was flattered to be approached and that it was a good opportunity for voters not necessarily familiar with his candidacy to notice his name on the ballot. But, he says, being circled along with Fulton doesn’t mean he’s aligned with the former mayor.

Thomas told the Scene earlier this year that he essentially works as a consultant for Collins’ company. Despite his 1990 conviction on charges of misusing government resources, Thomas is still considered one of Davidson County’s shrewdest political strategists. The distinction may well be overstated these days—some say Thomas doesn’t have the “juice” he once did—but candidates of all types continue to tap him for political advice and support, and he is perhaps best known for getting Nashville’s voters to the polls.

“When it comes to delivering people to vote, whether it’s early or on election day, Fate Thomas wrote the book,” Collins told the Scene earlier this year. Collins said then, too, that he started his company in 1998 to make money on the kind of political activity “Fate and I have been doing for free for the last 25 or 30 years.”