Wilmer officials are holding their collective breath as early voting in the May 10 election continues with a registered sex offender still on the ballot for mayor.

Although J. Brian Sliter withdrew in late March, the ballots had already been printed, City Secretary Crystol Birdwell said.

"We only have five days from the time the candidates draw for their place on the ballot, and after those five days that's it," Ms. Birdwell said.

She said she asked about putting up a notice to tell voters Mr. Sliter was no longer a candidate, but state election officials said that would be interfering with an election.

When she asked what would happen if Mr. Sliter won the most votes in the three-candidate field, "they told me we would cross that bridge when we came to it."

Mr. Sliter declined to comment about his name still being on the ballot. Because the media are focusing on him, he said, people are missing "the real story of what is happening in Wilmer."

Wilmer, population 3,400, is about 15 miles south of downtown Dallas.

Mr. Sliter, a 42-year-old accountant, was arrested in a 2004 police sting after arranging on the Internet to have sex with a person he thought was a 15-year-old girl.

He was charged with attempting to commit sexual assault of a child, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety. Mr. Sliter was eligible to run for public office because he received deferred adjudication, which will leave him without a conviction if he completes 10 years of probation.

When he withdrew from the mayor's race, Mr. Sliter indicated that he was doing so because of threats to his life.

"A detective who works for Dallas County in the probation department convinced me it was in my best interest – and those close to me – for me to drop out of the race," Mr. Sliter said at the time. "Based on what was told to me, it is best that I don't talk to the media about why I ran, why I withdrew and the corruption going on."

The other mayoral candidates are Teresa Bain, a paramedic, and the incumbent, Don Hudson.

Mr. Hudson said that if Mr. Sliter receives the most votes, he can accept or decline the job.

"I don't think that's going to happen. I really don't," Mr. Hudson said. "But stranger things have happened in this world."