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ELECTIONS
J-Court denies 2018 president’s appeal
Tanner Garza — THE BATTALION
By Lindsey Gawlik
The Judicial Court of
the Texas A&M Stu
dent Government Asso
ciation ruled Wednesday
afternoon to uphold the
disqualification of Class of
2018 presidential candidate
Samuel O’Rourke.
O’Rourke, a history
freshman, will not serve as
the Class of 2018 president,
despite acquiring 78 percent
of the vote. O’Rourke filed
an appeal this weekend after
learning he had been dis-
qualified from running for
not filing an expense report,
despite spending no money
on his campaign.
Election rules require
students to file an expense
report or a null-expenditure
statement.
“All candidates must sub
mit a finance report and all
receipts from campaigning
on the first day of voting by
5:00 pm,” according to the
case summary read. “Candi
dates failing to comply shall
be disqualified the first day
of voting at 5:00 p.m.”
O’Rourke said he dis
agrees with the ruling and
felt he had a compelling ar
gument.
“I even gave an alterna
tive to disqualification — I
referred to Article 4 Section
C, which lists a withheld fi
nance report, which was the
reason Ms. Douglas gave for
disqualifying me, as a major
offense, which, according to
the regulations, can result in
one of two ‘unreasonable’
penalties,” O’Rourke said.
“A fine of up to 15 percent
of the candidate’s total al
lotted budget — $60 in my
case — or disqualification.”
O’Rourke said he hopes
SGA better clarifies this rule
and others in the future.
Student Senate rejects ‘Fee Neutrality Bill’
By Nikita Redkar
The Student Senate docket
Wednesday included the Fee Neu
trality Bill, which proposes the student
body president election endorsement
by The Battalion editorial board was an
inappropriate use of student fees and
advocates the outlet’s fee allocation
should be stripped.
Before it could reach committee,
a vote was passed to postpone indefi
nitely the bill.
Academic Affairs Chair David Son-
ka said no student fees should go to a
news source that endorses a candidate.
“Student fees were used to bol
ster the campaign of one candidate in
particular, and a student-funded news
source should not be taking sides,”
Sonka said. “We shouldn’t have our
vote of dollars taken from us.”
Rule and Regulations Chair Aaron
Mitchell said he agreed The Battalion
should not endorse candidates, but said
the campus needs a student newspaper
and proposed speaking with The Bat
talion staff instead.
“A daily paper exists to report daily
news and to give students journalism
experience,” Mitchell said. “We need
Aggie journalists. There are t-sips out
there running the world of journalism.
It’s rude to ask to defund somebody’s
organization.”
Senator Joseph Hood said defund
ing The Battalion would set a dangerous
precedent of defunding other student
organizations that endorse a candidate.
“Many other organizations that en
dorse candidates do receive student fees
in one way or the other,” Hood said.
“If this bill passes, it sends a message to
the rest of the student body.”
MORE AT TX.AG/BATT2
T,mLai —THE BATTALION
Academic Affairs Chair David
Sonka debates a bill Wednesday
that advocated against The
Battalion's student fee allotment.
YELL LEADERS CONTINUED
Student Senate rules and regulations chair Aaron Mitchell
on behalf of Senior Yell Leader-elect Steven Lanz, argued
Lanz deserved proper representation in the Judicial Court.
Election regulations say a winning candidate — if
the outcome of the appeal would strip their position —
should be named a defendant. Because Lanier’s appeal
failed to name Lanz, the counter appeal argued it should
be dismissed.
Tyler Boykin, general engineering sophomore and ju
dicial advocate for Lanier, said there is no way to know if
Lanz’s spot would change.
The court will answer two questions. First, whether
the appeal was improperly filed and should be thrown
out. Second, whether a recount is merited.
Emma Douglas, SGA election commissioner and a
defendant in the initial appeal, said IT limitations would
require a manual recount of the 11,000-plus ballots cast.
“IT has said multiple times that it’s impossible to do on
the computers so we’ll have to do it manually,” Douglas
said. “So to follow this rule we’d have to do it manually
and the recount would have a large margin of error, and
huge liabilities with interpretation issues. It’s not 100 per
cent verifiable, it’s not secure, there’s no way in ensuring
that it’s 100 percent accurate.”
Boykin said the IT department would, in fact, be able
to count the three votes on each ballot, based on a con
versation he and Lanier had with the department Tuesday.
“They specifically told us they do have all the second
place votes, they do have all the third place votes, they
have all the fourth place, fifth place,” Boykin said. “In
every single category they have the raw data — they have
it compiled and it’s absolutely untrue that they wouldn’t
be able to count that up.”
Lanz said he does not want to win on an inaccurate
case, and he only wants to make sure he was properly
represented in the court.
“I filed the appeal because I wanted to have a voice
— I wanted to make sure that I wasn’t going to have a
case against me that wasn’t going to allow me to have a
voice to speak on my behalf,” Lanz said. “I understand
and I recognize that the votes were the way they were, or
weren’t tallied the way they were supposed to be tallied,
as in they were just first place votes.”
Lanier said the student body is misrepresented and ex
pects this mistake to be made right.
“If we were to decide to dismiss this one, and then
just try to fix future races and leave this one be, I think
then we are dismissing 66 percent of the student body’s
voice,” Lanier said.
A decision will be madev within 48 hours.
SBP CONTINUED
the Texas A&M Student Government Association Election
Regulations.”
The defense’s pre-trial stance largely centered on two
arguments — that the appeal is inherently flawed by lump
ing Benigno’s and Douglas’ allegations into one appeal, and
that A&M’s Judicial Court has no jurisdiction to rule on
traffic violations without a previous ruling by a Texas court
of law.
“Emma and I have been improperly lumped together,”
Benigno said. “The case as it stands would not be due pro
cess. To vote to move on with this case is a vote against
due process.”
The defense argued that two separate trials should be
held to determine individual guilt before grouping the two
together.
Russo argued on Murtha’s behalf that the court must
hear the case to establish consistency and legitimacy within
SGA, referencing previous fines levied against former stu
dent body president candidate Isaiah Tsau.
Tsau was fined $200 and $300, respectively, by the elec
tion commission for two instances of campaigning in off-
limit areas.
“The issue is if the same standards were applied in a
previous case adjudicated by the election commission, if
the election commission were to be consistent, that would
place the defendant over budget,” Russo said. “That is why
we filed a complaint against both parties.”
Russo also referenced J-Court appeal regulations, which
state the plaintiff may be required to name any or all de
fendants in the case.
To further challenge the case’s procedural workings, Be
nigno’s defense argued the court does not have original
jurisdiction over the case on the grounds that any state or
local convictions were never handed down in a state court
of law.
Citing Article V of the Texas Constitution, the defense
stated that, for misdemeanor cases punishable by fine only,
original jurisdiction lies with the Justice of the Peace Court,
leaving SGA fundamentally incapable of determining guilt.
To rebut this claim, the plaintiff’s counsel argued a con
viction is not necessary to show a violation of the rules, cit
ing photographic evidence of Benigno actively campaign
ing in off-limits areas.
“Ignoring state penal code, this still has to be heard for
the same reasons the O’Rourke case was heard,” econom
ics senior Clayton Cromer said on Murtha’s behalf. “They
broke the rules that say you can’t hold campaign materials
off campus.”
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batt
rr Voce or Texas A
Mark Dore, Editor in Chief
Aimee Breaux, Managing Editor
Jennifer Reiley, Asst. Managing Editor
Lindsey Gawlik, News Editor
Samantha King, Asst. News Editor
Katy Stapp, Asst. News Editor
John Rangel, SciTech Editor
Katie Canales, Life & Arts Editor
Carter Karels, Sports Editor
Shelby Knowles, Photo Editor
Allison Bradshaw, Asst. Photo Editor
Meredith Collier, Page Designer
Claire Shepherd, Page Designer
THE BATTALION is published daily, Monday through Friday during the fall and
spring semesters and Tuesday and Thursday during the summer session (except
University holidays and exam periods) at Texas A&M University, College Station,
TX 77843. Offices are in Suite L400 of the Memorial Student Center.
News: The Battalion news department is managed by students at Texas
A&M University in Student Media, a unit of the Division of Student Affairs.
Newsroom phone: 979-845-3315; E-mail: editor@thebatt.com; website: http://
www.thebattcom.
Advertising: Publication of advertising does not imply sponsorshipor endorsement
by The Battalion. For campus, local, and national display advertising, call 979-
845-2687. For classified advertising, call 979-845-0569. Office hours are 8 a.m. to
5 p.m. Monday through Friday. Email: battads@thebatt.com.
Subscriptions^ part of the University Advancement Fee entitles each Texas A&M
student to pick up a single copy of The Battalion. First copy free, additional
copies $1.
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