By JOEL PHELPS | The Arkadelphian

Come Jan. 1, Tracy Rider will leave her seat as Clark County justice of the peace and take the helm of county clerk, one of the seven major elected county offices. The owner of The Farmhouse, a gift shop in downtown Arkadelphia, Rider will replace Mona Vance, who in May secured the assessor’s seat with no opponent in the general election.

Rider, on the other hand, had an opponent in Tina Johnson, who currently serves as Vance’s deputy clerk. Rider secured 3,495 votes to Johnson’s 2,583.

“I’m ready to get started,” Rider told The Arkadelphian following Tuesday’s election results. “I just feel honored because I won by almost a thousand votes.” Rider said Johnson was a worthy opponent. “Tina is a great person, and I look forward to working with her,” she said. “She ran a great race. I’m just relieved that it’s over.”

Asked for any immediate changes anticipated for the office of county clerk, Rider said she plans to continue working to implement a “full-fledged” electronic filing system for probate court so that citizens and attorneys can have full access to records online.

“Other than that the office runs pretty smoothly,” she added. “I don’t plan on making any major changes.” She said her experience as a justice of the peace, as well as being an office manager for Dr. Scott Byrd’s dental clinic, will help her in the transition to the office. “I do have a lot to learn,” she admitted. “But I plan to get started learning pretty quickly.”