Tim Swope and Debbie Cook, the Democratic nominees for two Missouri House seats in St. Charles County, no longer want to run in the Nov. 4 election.

But it’s too late to easily withdraw their names from the ballot and both say they can’t afford the cost involved if they were able to get a court order to do so. That could be $6,000 to $10,000 or more, says the County Election Authority.

So unless the Democratic Party or some other benefactor agrees to pay for reprinting and reprogramming the ballots, the two remain on the ballot - putting the party in an odd situation.

Swope and Cook each say they will do no campaigning.

Swope goes as far as saying he’ll turn down the seat if he’s elected because of the time commitment he’d made to his new employer, a computer software company. “I made a pledge to this company I would not go to Jeff City,” he said.

Swope, who is widely known from his former stints as county sheriff and St. Charles police chief, was among the county Democrats’ brightest hopes for picking up a House seat. 

He is the nominee to fill the vacant 18th District seat formerly held by Republican Tom Dempsey, who gave it up last fall after being elected to the state Senate in a special election. The GOP nominee is Anne Zerr, a former aide to ex-County Executive Joe Ortwerth.

Swope said he got his new job after the standard Aug. 19 withdrawal deadline. He said he had been out of work since January and “I had to pay my bills.”

Cook is the Democratic nominee against Republican incumbent Cynthia Davis in O’Fallon’s 19th District.

Cook, who has five children and works as an X-ray technician, said she decided to drop her candidacy after realizing “I can’t parent the way I want to and be in Jefferson City.”

She said she intended to withdraw before the deadline but didn’t get the paperwork in to the secretary of state’s office on time because the office initially sent her the wrong form.

Cook then filed for a court order but withdrew it after finding out what the bill could be for preparing new ballots. If she’s elected anyway, she said, “I probably would turn it down.”

The secretary of state’s office says local Democratic county committee members from the two districts could pick new candidates if Swope and Cook did get their names removed by court order.

The county Democratic chairman, St. Peters Alderman Tommy Roberts, said Monday he wanted to talk with the two now-reluctant candidates before commenting in detail.