The results of A&M’s Yell Leader revote will be announced at 6 p.m. Thursday next to the new E. King Gill statue, barring any rule violation allegations.
The revote comes after this year’s Senior Yell Leaders nullified the Student Government Association’s Yell Leader election process. Faculty and staff were able to access the ballot, but Ryan Trantham, special election commissioner and MSC president, said non-student ballots are not tallied.
Trantham said while the online ballot is open to faculty and staff, the computer system only tallies student ballots after a validation system compares cast ballots with a list of current students.
“Faculty and staff can go in and fill out a ballot, but that ballot won’t be validated,” Trantham said.
David Sweeney, director of A&M’s Information Technology department, said it is typical for faculty and staff to be able to access the online ballot for student elections. Sweeney said the system ensures only student ballots are counted once the voting closes. Enabling ballot access to anyone with a Net ID and a UIN makes the system easier and cleaner from a programming standpoint, Sweeney said.
Trantham said he was optimistic the revote would be successful, but is prepared to postpone the election announcements if violation allegations are brought forth.
“If for whatever reason there are allegations of rules violations that do get submitted before the deadline of [Thursday] at noon, myself and my student appeals panel will have to review all of those different allegations and then any appeals that would come from our rulings prior to announcing any results,” Trantham said.
The deadline to submit allegations to the special election commissioner is noon Thursday.