A candidate in local elections in the US state of Minnesota is having trouble persuading voters not to elect him. Paul Herold does not want to hold public office, but voters in the town of Blaine have catapulted him into the final stage of the municipal election.
Mr Herold originally signed up to run for City Council but landed a new job that he said would not allow him enough time to devote to his constituents. The father-of-two is now campaigning for his opponent - and hoping to lose.
The ambivalent candidate was told by City Hall officials that he had missed the deadline to remove his name from the primary ballot list. They suggested that he simply not campaign for next month's poll.
Mr Herold did more than that - he phoned friends and neighbours asking them to vote for anyone but him. He has even offered to drive them free to the polling stations if they will vote for someone else.
"I tried my best not to get any votes," he told Associated Press news agency.
Unfortunately for Mr Herold, he still got enough votes to advance to the next stage against incumbent Katherine Kolb. City clerk Jane Cross says there is very little Mr Herold can do to get his name off the ballot.
"One, he would either have to die or he would have to move out of his district and those were not really two viable options. You know, it's too bad that it had to happen, it's too bad when he found out he could not hold a position that the voters still gave him that many votes," Ms Cross said.
If he does win, Mr Herold could choose not to show up for his swearing in, forcing Blaine City Council to hold a special election to replace him at a cost of $30,000 (£16,000).
He has described this as a burden he would find difficult to impose on the residents of the small town.
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