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Cleveland's red-light camera program is likely to be history.

(The Plain Dealer, file photo)

CLEVELAND, Ohio -- Drivers who received a citation from one of Cleveland's 64 traffic enforcement cameras after 11:59 p.m. Monday do not have to pay the fines.

City spokesman Daniel Ball said Wednesday that the voter-approved city charter amendment that places heavy restrictions on the use of red-light and speeding cameras was to take affect "upon enactment of the voters."

Rather than struggle to determine when that cut-off point should be and to avoid a wave of challenges, city lawyers recommended that all of Election Day be a wash, he said.

People who receive tickets for earlier infractions, however, must still pay, he said.

According to unofficial elections results, Cleveland voters approved -- by a three-to-one margin -- a charter change that bans using the cameras "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 intent of Cleveland's charter change, and a similar change approved in Maple Heights, was to undermine the business models of both cities' traffic camera systems, which are designed to run without officers present and treat citations as civil infractions.

Ball said that Cleveland has not yet decided whether it will continue operating the cameras. But he added that the city's contract with Xerox Corp, which operates the cameras, does not require the city to pay a cancellation fee on account of the voter-driven referendum.

Stay tuned to cleveland.com for more on this developing story.