Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Smithpeters narrowly defeats Leeper for JP District 9

Clark County will have a new circuit judge in January, complete but unofficial votes from the primary election showed Tuesday, May 20.

Circuit Judge John Thomas, who has served on the bench since 1999, was defeated by challenger Robert McCallum by a vote of 1,806 to 1,401.

Thomas received 43.69 percent of the vote, and McCallum received 56.31 percent.

McCallum had previously served as circuit judge when he was appointed to serve out the remainder of former Judge Dub Arnold, who had been chosen to serve on the Arkansas Supreme Court.

Only 3,240 ballots were cast out of Clark Countys 10,882 registered voters, according to the vote results.

Two other county races were decided while a third will go to a runoff in three weeks, said Karen Wieman, coordinator of the Clark County Election Commission.

District 9 Justice of the Peace Vickie Smithpeters was re-elected by a margin of four votes over challenger Diana Leeper. A problem with the electronic voting system failed to register all votes in several boxes at first, leading Leeper supporters to believe she had won that race. However, during the final tabulations of the night, Wieman and members of the election commission found that not all votes had been tabulated.

We read the results (available at the time) in good faith, said Dr. Hal Bass, chairman of the election commission. When the error was discovered later in the evening, Bass phoned both Smithpeters and Leeper to explain the situation. It was an innocent mistake, Bass said. But it was a mistake nonetheless.

The final vote tallies showed Smithpeters received 50.76 percent of the votes cast, while Leeper garnered 49.24 percent.

I think it was a very close race, said Smithpeters. Mrs. Leeper did a good job campaigning. It showed me where my weaknesses and my strong points are. I hate it about the mix up with the wards concerning 1, 2 and 3, but Im glad that it was caught for everybodys part. My phone line is always open. Im always concerned with how the citizens feel, and Id like to thank everyone who got out and voted and supported me.

Leeper did not comment on the ballot mix up at press time.

A runoff election will be June 10 to decide the circuit clerks race. Incumbent Penny Ross led in the primary with 1,408 votes, or 47.33 percent, over challengers Kathy Phelps and Martha Jo Smith. Smith received 1,179 votes (39.63 percent) to Phelps 388 (13.04 percent).

Ross and Smith will face each other in the runoff. Early voting for the runoff will begin of June 3.

Of the ballots cast, 3,034 of them were Democratic Party ballots and 183 were Republican Party ballots. Only 23 non-partisan ballots, which contained only the race for circuit judge, were cast.

The election commission met Friday, May 23, in the county clerks office to certify the votes.