The Text

The Assembly shall consist of one hundred and twenty-eight members, elected for one year. The Members of Assembly shall be apportioned among the several counties of the State, by the Legislature, as nearly as may be, according to the number of their respective inhabitants, excluding aliens, and shall be chosen by single districts. The Assembly districts shall remain as at present organized, until after the enumeration of the inhabitants of the State, in the year eighteen hundred and seventy-five. The Legislature, at its first session after the return of every enumeration, shall apportion the Members of Assembly among the several counties of the State, in manner aforesaid, and the board of supervisors in such counties as may be entitled under such apportionment, to more than one member, except the city and county of New York, and in said city and county the board of aldermen of said city shall assemble at such time as the Legislature making such apportionment shall prescribe, and divide their respective counties into Assembly districts, each of which districts shall consist of convenient and contiguous territory, equal to the number of members of Assembly to which such counties shall be entitled, and shall cause to be filed in the ofiices of the Secretary of State and the clerks of their respective counties a description of such districts, specifying the number of each district and the population thereof, according to the lastpreceding enumeration as near as can be ascertained, and the apportionment and districts shall remain unaltered until another enumeration shall be made as herein provided. No town shall be divided in the formation of Assembly districts. Every county heretofore established and separately organized, except the county of Hamilton, shall always be entitled to one member of the Assembly, and no new county shall be hereafter erected, unless its population shall entitle it to a member. The county of Hamilton shall elect with the county of Fulton, until the population of the countyof Hamilton shall, according to the ratio, be entitled to a member. But the Legislature may abolish the said county of Hamilton, and annex the territory thereof to some other county or counties. Nothing in this section shall prevent division at any time of counties and towns, and the erection of new towns and counties by the Legislature.