The campaign of a Texas A&M student to become the university’s first female yell leader has come to an abrupt end.
Samantha Ketcham wrote on her Facebook campaign page Wednesday she was told by the A&M Election Commission the votes were calculated incorrectly.
The Election Commission posted on its website (see picture below) “After reviewing the unofficial election results, the Election Commission became aware that the percentages were tabulated incorrectly. As a result, the Senior Yell Leader election was impacted. A run-off election is no longer required for the Senior Yell Leader position. All other races remain unchanged. The corrected results are available at election.tamu.edu. The Election Commission regrets any resulting inconvenience.”
Tuesday’s A&M student election also drew attention off-campus because there was a candidate for student body president who is an illegal immigrant. Jose-Luis Zelaya finished fourth in the six-man field.
Click HERE to see complete A&M student election results.
Original story:
The election season is underway in Aggieland, as students at Texas A&M University voted Tuesday for next year’s student officers and yell leaders.
Election day was special for Samantha Ketcham, a junior biology major from Virginia. She was among four candidates who qualified for a runoff for two remaining openings as a senior yell leader.
Ketcham says it’s not about becoming the first female in the 105 years A&M has had yell leaders. She says her interest comes from being a third generation student “who was raised to love all the Aggie traditions.”
Ketcham also says “I think people are worried that if there’s a girl on the field, what’s the difference with being a cheerleader. I don’t want to be a cheerleader. I don’t want to be a part of the dance team. I just want to be a part of this tradition and I want to be a yell leader.”
Whatever the results of the runoff, Ketcham says the experience has been exciting and very interesting, but also time consuming as she says she has improved her time management skills balancing the campaign with a full class load and working as a resident assistant.
The runoff election is Thursday and Friday, with results announced Friday at 7:30 p.m. at the Sul Ross Statue in A&M’s Academic Plaza.
Samantha Ketcham visits with WTAW’s Bill Oliver.
Click HERE to see complete A&M student election results.
Senior Yell Leader
15385 Ballots
Max 3 Vote(s) Per Person
Candidates:
9037 58.74% Nelson Ingram – Winner
7591 49.34% Drew Nelson – Runoff
7509 48.81% Hunter Skoog – Runoff
7336 47.68% Josh Light – Runoff
3271 21.26% Samantha Ketcham – Runoff