The Bi$hop Want$ Ca$h

Washington DC began recognizing same-sex marriages from other jurisdictions on Tuesday after ruling that the issue could not be put to a public vote as it would violate its 1995 Human Rights Act. Undeterred by reality, Bishop Harry Jackson is asking for donations to register a ballot measure for the November election. From Christianist news site One News Now:

"The reality is we've got to start now. We need help from the grassroots. We need finance. We need volunteers coming in. We need people who are going to start the battle to collect the signatures at the end of the summer," he says. "So, all of that has to happen right now." Jackson would need the signatures of 21,000 registered DC voters -- approximately five percent of the voting public in the District -- to get the initiative on the November 2010 ballot.

A DC Superior Court and the city's Board of Elections and Ethics has already shot Jackson down. Does he really expect to miraculously get the issue on the ballot or is he just panhandling for donations? You know the answer.

UPDATE: The Washington Blade reports that DC may revoke Jackson's right to vote for fraudulently claiming he is a DC resident.

In a June 30 letter, the D.C. Board of Elections and Ethics informed Rev. Harry Jackson that District residents Cary Silverman and Martin Moulton filed a challenge to his claim to be a city resident. The letter, written by Karen F. Brooks, the election board’s registrar of voters, says the board will revoke Jackson’s D.C. voter registration unless he responds to the challenge within 30 days by submitting evidence confirming that he lives in the city. “Please be advised that under D.C. Code 1-1001.14(a), an applicant violating applicable voter registration procedures shall be subjected to the same criminal sanctions for fraudulently attempting to register to vote that apply to all applicants,” Brooks stated in her letter to Jackson. Her letter was sent to an apartment at the Whitman Condominium at 910 M St., N.W., that Jackson declared as his residence when he registered to vote in D.C. on April 22, 2009. Sources familiar with the Whitman say Jackson informed the building’s management that he moved out of the building two weeks ago.

The apartment Jackson claims as his DC residence is owned by somebody else and cannot be legally rented under its condo association rules.