As many as 17,000 red-light camera fines are being dismissed in New Jersey because a glitch prevented motorists from being notified of their citations. The infractions in 17 New Jersey towns are being forgiven because American Traffic Solutions, the company handling the fines, did not send out notices to affected motorists within 90 days following the issuance of a citation, the authorities said.

"This wasn't 5 or 10 or even a couple of hundred instances. This total breakdown affected almost 17,000 motorists," Assemblyman Declan O'Scanlon told the Star Ledger. The affected citations were issued May 28 through June 30.

Further Reading Faulty red light cameras produced thousands of bogus traffic tickets

Voters are taking notice of the reports of problems—at least those in Cleveland, Ohio. The fate of Cleveland's automatic traffic camera systems will be up for a vote thanks to a citizen-led effort to ban the machines.

The voter initiative would bar the cameras, which have generated $6 million for Cleveland city coffers, "unless a law enforcement officer is present at the location of the device and personally issues a ticket to the alleged violator at the time and date of the violation."

The fight in Cleveland revolves around 54 speed and red-light cameras that have cropped up throughout the city. The measure reached the ballot last week amid a fierce debate between supporters swearing that the machines make the streets safer and opponents complaining that they're nothing more than money-making ventures for municipalities and the vendors behind them.

The upcoming Cleveland vote comes as the former chief executive officer of Redflex, a major red-light camera vendor, has been indicted on federal corruption charges stemming from a contract with Chicago. In addition to former CEO Karen Finley, prosecutors also indicted John Bills, former managing deputy commissioner at the Chicago Department of Transportation, and Bills’ friend Martin O’Malley, who was hired as a contractor by Redflex. According to the indictment, O’Malley himself was paid $2 million for his services as a contractor, effectively making him one of the company’s highest paid workers. Much of that money was then funneled to Bills, who used it for personal gain, the authorities said.

A May 2014 affidavit written by an FBI special agent suggests that Bills likely used some of this money to purchase and store a boat, buy a car, pay for an addition to his Michigan cabin, pay for his girlfriend’s mortgage, pay his own mortgage, pay his kids’ tuition, and hire a divorce attorney over the course of several years. The indictment followed a Chicago Tribune report that at least 1,300 Chicago motorists had been cited with undeserved tickets thanks to malfunctioning red-light cameras. The report found that the $100 citations were a result of "faulty equipment, human tinkering or both."

Days ago, Nassau County of New York's Long Island announced it was forgiving thousands of speeding tickets issued this summer from malfunctioning speed cameras, totaling about $2.4 million in fines. Cameras from American Traffic Solutions placed near six schools where speed limits are reduced during school hours issued tickets even when school was not in session.