Across Cleveland, 15 new billboards are going up, that’ll read, “VOTING IS A RIGHT, NOT A CRIME.”
These were designed to offset an earlier series of 30 billboards, that were anonymously purchased from Clear Channel Outdoor. Those said, “VOTER FRAUD IS A FELONY”...punishable by a $10,000 fine and a prison sentence. Most appeared in largely African-American, lower-income areas of Cleveland.
But following an outcry from minority leaders and voting rights advocates, Clear Channel Outdoor says it violated its own policy of allowing anonymous political messages, and will now remove them this week.
State Senator Nina Turner is delighted at the news. She campaigned against the voter fraud billboards.
“The incidences of in-person voter fraud almost are non-existent", says Turner. "It doesn’t make sense for any group to use their money or their political clout, to try to suppress the vote.”
Turner and other local lawmakers will hold a press conference Monday morning, at the unveiling of one of the new billboards. Clear Channel donated ten, and the city council funded five more.
Clear Channel says it’s also scrapping original voter fraud billboards in Columbus and Milwaukee, for a total of 145 being taken down.