The Text

The members of the assembly shall be chosen by single districts, and shall be apportioned by the Legislature at the first regular session after the return of every enumeration among the several counties of the State, as nearly as may be according to the number of their respective inhabitants, excluding aliens. Every county heretofore established and separately organized, except the county of Hamilton, shall always be entitled to one member of assembly, and no county shall hereafter be 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 county of Hamilton shall, according to the ratio, entitle it to a member. But the Legislature may abolish the said county of Hamilton and annex the territory thereof to some other county or counties.
The quotient obtained by dividing the whole number of inhabitants of the State, excluding aliens, by the number of members of assembly, shall be the ratio for apportionment, which shall be made as follows: One member of assembly shall be apportioned to every- county, including Fulton and Hamilton as one county, containing less than the ratio and one half over. Two members shall be apportioned to every other county. The remaining members of assembly shall be apportioned to the counties having more than two ratios, according to the number of inhabitants, excluding aliens. Members apportioned on remainders shall be apportioned to the counties having the highest remainders on the order thereof respectively. No county shall have more members of assembly than a county having a greater number of inhabitants, excluding aliens.
Until after the next enumeration, members of the assembly shall be apportioned to the several counties as follows: Albany county, four members; Allegany county, one member; Broome county, two members; Cattaraugus county, two members; Cayuga county, two members; Chautauqua county, two members; Chemung county, one member; Chenango county, one member; Clinton county, one member; Columbia county, one member; Cortland county, one member; Delaware county, one member; Dutchess county, two members; Erie county, eight members; Essex county, one member; Franklin county, one member; Fulton and Hamilton counties, one member; Genesee county, one member; Greene county, one member; Herkimer county, one member; Jefferson county, two members; Kings county, twenty-one members; Lewis county, one member; Livingston county, one member; Madison county, one member ; Monroe county, four members; Montgomery county, one member; New York county, thirty-five members; Niagara county, two members; Oneida county, three members; Onondaga county, four members; Ontario county, one member; Orange county, two members; Orleans county, one member; Oswego county, two members ; Otsego county, one member; Putnam county, one member; Queens county, three members; Rensselaer county, three members; Richmond county, one member; Rockland county, one member; St. Lawrence county, two members; Saratoga county, one member; Schenectady county, one member; Schoharie county, one member; Schuyler county, one member; Seneca county, one member; Steuben county, two members; Suffolk county, two members; Sullivan county, one member; Tioga county, one member; Tompkins county, one member; Ulster county, two members; Warren county, one member; Washington county, one member; Wayne county, one member; Westchester county, three members; Wyoming county, one member, and Yates county, one member.
In any county entitled to more than one member, the board of supervisors, and in any city embracing an entire county and having no board of supervisors, the common council, or if there be none, the body exercising the powers of a common council, shall assemble on the second Tuesday of June, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, and at such times as the Legislature making an apportionment shall prescribe, and divide such counties into assembly districts as nearly equal in number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, as may be, of convenient and contiguous territory in as compact form as practicable, each of which shall be wholly within a senate district formed under the same apportionment, equal to the number of members of assembly to which such county shall be entitled, and shall cause to be filed in the office of the secretary of State and of the clerk of such county, a description of such districts, specifying the number of each district and of the inhabitants thereof, excluding aliens, according to the last preceding enumeration; and such apportionment and districts shall remain unaltered until another enumeration shall be made, as herein provided; but said division of the city of Brooklyn and the county of Kings to be made on the second Tuesday of June, one thousand eight hundred and ninety-five, shall be made by the common council of the said city and the board of supervisors of said county, assembled in joint session. In counties having more than one senate district, the same number of assembly districts shall be put in each senate district, unless the assembly districts cannot be evenly divided among the senate districts of any county, in which case one more assembly district shall be put in the senate district in such county having the largest, or one less assembly district shall be put in the senate district in such county having the smallest, number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, as the case may require. No town, and no block in a city inclosed by streets or public ways, shall be divided in the formation of assembly districts, nor shall any district contain a greater excess in population over an adjoining district in the same senate district than the population of a town or block therein adjoining such assembly district. Towns or blocks which, from their location, may be included in either of two districts, shall be so placed as to make said districts most nearly equal in number of inhabitants, excluding aliens; but in the division of cities under the first apportionment, regard shall be had to the number of inhabitants, excluding aliens, of the election districts according to the State enumeration of one thousand eight hundred and ninety-two, so far as may be, instead of blocks. Nothing in this section shall prevent the division, at any time, of counties and towns, and the erection of new towns by the Legislature.
An apportionment by the Legislature, or other body, shall be subject to review by the supreme court, at the suit of any citizen, under such reasonable regulations as the Legislature may prescribe; and any court before which a cause may be pending involving an apportionment shall give precedence thereto over all other causes and proceedings, and if said court be not in session it shall convene promptly for the disposition of the same.