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ELECTIONS
Ritchie replaces Cook in revote that
garnered more eligible ballots
Benigno remains SBP-elect
The J-Court appeal involving SBP candidates Michael Murtha (left) and Joseph
Benigno (right) ended in Benigno retaining his positron as SBP-elect.
J-Court ruling opts not to overturn
election commissioner's decision
By Lindsey Gawlik & John Rangel
■W- oseph Benigno will remain A&M’s
I student body president-elect, after
I A&M’s Judicial Court ruled no action
would be taken to reverse the elec
tion commissioner’s decision not to
fine Benigno’s campaign.
J-Court’s Thursday evening announce
ment resolved several election issues that
centered around a Benigno campaign video
titled “Go(Pro) with Joe.” Former SBP can
didate Michael Murtha’s team asserted Be
nigno should be fined for several election
regulation and state traffic violations seen in
the video — an argument struck down by the
court’s plurality opinion.
The court’s plurality opinion also found
no fault in Election Commissioner Emma
.. Douglas’ decision to not fine Benigno for his
actions in the video. Murtha’s team argued
Douglas’ actions were biased in light of her
earlier decision, to fine former SBP candidate
Isaiah Tsau for election violations.
Judicial Court’s Murtha v. Douglas & Be
nigno decision addressed four issues in total,
but the case often saw the court’s nine justices
closely split on the ruling’s specifics. In nar
row 5-4 majorities, five voted in Murtha’s fa
vor on whether or not off-campus campaign
ing did occur and five voted not to reverse
Douglas’ actions as election commissioner.
“This is by far the longest, most compli
cated and closest decision in Judicial Court
history,” wrote chiefjustice Brenton Cooper
in an emailed statement.
The court voted 8-1 that Douglas showed
no bias toward Benigno when she did not
levy fines against his campaign, but did fine
Tsau for election violations. The vote went
6-3 to side with Benigno on whether his al
leged state traffic violations should result in
levied fines from Douglas.
Though he said Benigno would be a quali
fied SBP, Murtha said he is disappointed and
thinks the ruling sets a precedent in future
elections that rules can be broken without
SBP ON PG. 2
By Jennifer Reiley
w The votes are in, and a student who is not
in the Corps will once again serve as one
of A&M’s five Yell Leaders.
The results of the Yell Leader revote were
announced at the new E. King Gill statue
Thursday. The revote comes after Yell Lead
ers nullified the original Feb. 19-20 election,
citing questionable tabulating methods.
The results of the revote were the same as
the original vote held by the Student Govern
ment Association, with one exception — ca
det Ben Ritchie replaced cadet Kyle Cook.
Ritchie, who currently serves as a Junior
Yell Leader, is joined by non-reg Steven Lanz
as well as cadet and current Junior Yell Leader
Zachary Lawrence. Cadets Will Alders and
Chris Wilder will be Junior Yell Leaders for
the 2015-2016 school year.
Ryan Trantham, special election commis
sioner and Memorial Student Center presi
dent, said more votes were cast in the revote
than in original election, with 11,433 eligible
ballots cast for Senior Yell Leaders and 9,612
cast for Junior Yell Leaders.
Trantham said he believes the vote reflect
ed student body opinion.
“There were very clear breaks in the
votes, very clear indicators that these young
men were the students that the student body
wanted to see as Yell Leaders for next year, so
I was very pleased with that,” Trantham said.
Lawrence said he was pleased that roughly
the same number of people voted the second
time around.
“It doesn’t matter what the results were,”
Lawrence said. “The ultimate point of elec-
YELL LEADER ON PG. 2
M. BASKETBALL
W. BASKETBALL
A&M looks to bolster resume in
season finale against Alabama
By Carter Karels
By losing to Florida in Gainesville Tuesday
night, the Texas A&M basketball team en
ters what might be a must-win scenario.
The last game of the regular season will
be played at 1 p.m. Saturday in Reed Arena
against the Alabama Crimson Tide.
Alabama (17-13, 7-10 SEC) comes into the
matchup with consecutive defeats. The Crim
son Tide’s most recent one came at the hands
of Ole Miss on senior night, when the Rebels
overcame a halftime deficit to win. In the loss,
Alabama senior Levi Randolph finished one
shy of his career high, tallying 32 points.
Randolph leads the Crimson Tide in scoring
with 15.3 points per game and has logged dou
ble-digit performances in all but three games.
This includes his outing against A&M on Jan.
6 in the conference opener, in which he shot
3-for-7 from the field with 10 points en route
to a 65-44 Crimson Tide victory.
The Aggies (20-9, 11-6 SEC) were with
out their leading scorer and rebounder at the
time, Jalen Jones, because of a reported ankle
injury suffered in practice. The current lead
ing scorer, Danuel House, started SEC play
sluggishly, racking his third single-digit scoring
ALABAMA ON PG. 2
Kourtney Roberson shoots a free throw
in a home win over Auburn.
Injured junior guard Jordan Jones (left) joins the rest of the A&M women in
singing the Aggie War Hymn after the win Thursday.
Aggies clear first hurdle on
path to SEC championship
By Milkyas Gashaw
The 5-seed Texas A&M women’s
basketball team got one step closer to
an SEC tournament crown with a 57-47
victory against the 13-seed Auburn Tigers
Thursday in Little Rock.
The Aggies (23-8, 11-6 SEC) showed
the Tigers (13-18, 3-14 SEC) a balanced
offensive attack, with the No. 18 club
getting double figures from Achiri Ade,
Courtney Walker and Chelsea Jennings
and Courtney Williams, who led the Ag
gies with 14 points.
Tra’Cee Carter led the way for the
Tigers with 14 points and nine rebounds
while Katie Frerking had a double-double
with 13 points and 10 rebounds.
With the victory, the Aggies are slated
to play LSU at 2:15 p.m. Friday. The Ti
gers got the better of the Aggies Sunday in
an 80-63 victory.
Williams said they will take a new ap
proach against the Tigers.
“We have to keep our turnovers down,”
Williams said. “We have to be poised and
start out fast. We can’t just die down and
be careless as the game goes on.”