The advertisements began appearing three weeks ago, proclaiming “VOTER FRAUD IS A FELONY” over an imposing gavel. Most were placed in low-income, minority neighborhoods, and their placement – and timing – spurred critics to decry them as voter suppression tools, designed to scare away Latinos, African-Americans, and ex-felons from the polls come Election Day.

But Clear Channel says now it violated its own policy against anonymous political messages, and after consulting with its buyer, it’s been decided that the voter fraud billboards will come down immediately.

Cleveland Councilwoman Phyllis Cleveland addressed her concerns with Clear Channel, and is delighted at the outcome.

“I certainly wish they’d never gone up, but I applaud Clear Channel for taking them down. There was some damage down, but it wasn’t irreparable harm. It’s now our job to make sure that people know what their rights are, and do what they need to do.”

Meanwhile, a campaign to counter the voter fraud billboards will continue as planned. They say, “Voting is a right, not a crime”.

Clear Channel donated ten, and the Cleveland City Council funded five more.

The Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation says it leased seven Columbus billboards from Clear Channel advertising for its “I Can Be Good Without God” campaign. Unbeknownst to them, they say, one of those billboards sat on land owned by the Christ Cathedral Church just off James Road.

“The church that they leased the land from was unhappy with our billboard and they threatened to cut off relations with the billboard company unless they moved it,” says Annie Laurie-Gaylor, the foundation’s president.

Laurie-Gaylor says she considered legal action but decided against it when Clear Channel agreed to put the ad on another billboard. Neither Clear Channel nor the church immediately returned phone calls.

Eight digital billboards in Columbus are displaying the picture of fugitive Marine Corporal Cesar Laurean every minute. FBI spokeswoman Cathy Milhoan says the Clear Channel company provides space when it’s available.

“We launched the first billboard on September 13th,” Milhoan says. “The billboards typically feature a crystal clear image of a violent fugitive as well as a 24 hour hotline for the public to call. In October, 2 fugitives were caught as a direct result of that publicity.”

Nicole Hamilton is in charge of Clear Channel’s Columbus digital billboards. She says the company provides the space to the FBI free of charge.

“As soon as I found out about it, we needed to get some information out to the pubic as soon as possible, we created the template and we put it up,” Hamilton.

A coroner said Tuesday that Lauterbach died of blunt force trauma. Her burnt remains were found in a shallow grave in Laurean’s back yard near Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.