The Text

A. At its first regular session after the election held in the year nineteen hundred forty-six, and after the election held in each successive twelfth year thereafter, the legislature shall by law reapportion, subject to the provisions of this section, the members of assembly among the several counties, according to the vote cast for governor at the election next preceding such reapportionment. On any such reapportionment, and by the same law, the legislature shall establish the senate districts and provide that the board of supervisors in any county having such a board to which is apportioned more than one member of assembly, shall establish the assembly districts within such county equal in number to the number of members to which such county is entitled. In any county not having u board of supervisors, to which is apportioned more than one member of assembly, the legislature shall establish the assembly districts within such county equal in number to the number of members to which such county is entitled or shall provide that such districts be established by an elected body exercising powers within such county similar to those of a board of supervisors, or if any such county is wholly within the boundaries of a city, by the city council of such city or the body exercising therein powers similar to those of a city council.
B. Senate districts hereafter established or altered by the legislature pursuant to this article shall be so established or altered that each senate district shall be as nearly equal as may be in the number of voters, determined according to the vote cast therein for governor at such next preceding election, and shall consist of convenient and contiguous territory and be in as compact form as practicable. Not more than four counties shall be included in a single senate district and no county shall be divided in establishing a senate district, except to make two or more senate districts wholly writhing a county. Counties wholly within the boundaries of a city shall not have together more than one-half of the total number of senators. No town, except in the county of Nassau, shall be divided in establishing a senate district; nor shall any district contain a greater excess in number of such voters over an adjoining district within the same county, than the number of such voters in a town therein adjoining such district. Towns which, from their location, may be included in either of two senate districts, shall be so placed as to make such districts most nearly equal in the number of such voters.
Any county having therein more voters, determined according to the vote so cast therein for governor, than the amount of the quotient obtained by dividing the number of voters in the state, determined according to the vote so cast in the state for governor, by fifty-three shall alone be entitled to at least one senator, but no county alone shall be allotted a senator unless the number of such voters therein is at least two-thirds of the amount of such quotient; and no county shall have four or more senators unless it shall have the amount of such full quotient of such voters for each senator.
C. Every county heretofore or hereafter established and separately organized, except the county of Hamilton, shall always be entitled to at least one member of assembly; and whenever the number of voters in the county of Hamilton, determined according to the vote cast therein for governor at the election next preceding a reapportionment, equals or exceeds the number of voters, so determined, in any other county, the county of Hamilton also shall be entitled, on such reapportionment, and thereafter, to at least one member of assembly.
On a reapportionment of members of assembly, each county shall be. entitled to one member, except the counties of Hamilton and Fulton which together shall be entitled to one unless the county of Hamilton also shall be entitled to at least one as hereinbefore provided; and each county having thirty-six thousand or more voters, determined according to the vote cast for governor at the election next preceding such reapportionment, shall be entitled to two members; and the remaining members shall be allotted to the counties in which the number of such voters is seventy-two thousand or more. The ratio for so apportioning to the counties having seventy-two thousand or more such voters shall be the amount of the quotient obtained by dividing the total number of the voters above seventy-two thousand in such counties by the number of unallotted members. Each such county shall be allotted one additional member for each such full ratio in excess of seventy-two thousand. If thereafter there remain any members to be alloted, they shall be alloted to the counties having the highest remainders of such voters in excess of such full ratios, in the order thereof respectively, except that no county shall have ten or more members unless it shall have a full ratio for each member. Assembly districts within a county shall be established as nearly equal as may be in the number of voters, determined according to the vote cast therein for governor at such next preceding election, except that in establishing assembly districts pursuant to the provisions of section four of this article, the voters therein shall be determined according to the vote cast for governor at the election held in November, nineteen hundred thirty-six. Such districts shall consist of convenient and contiguous territory and be in as compact form as practicable. In counties having more than one senate district the same number of assembly districts shall be established in each senate district unless the assembly districts cannot be divided evenly among such senate districts, in which case such assembly districts shall be so established that each of the senate districts in such county having the’ larger number of such voters, in the order thereof respectively, beginning with the largest, shall have one more assembly district. No town, except in the county of Nassau, shall be divided in establishing any assembly district, nor shall any assembly district contain a greater excess of such voters over an adjoining district within the same senate district than the number of such voters in a town therein adjoining such assembly district. Towns, which from their location may be included in either of two assembly districts, shall be so placed as to make such districts most nearly equal in the number of such voters.
D. The senate and assembly districts, including the present ones, as established immediately before a reapportionment of members of assembly and the establishment of new senate and assembly districts by or pursuant to the provisions of this article shall not be altered and shall continue to be the senate and assembly districts, respectively, until the expiration of the terms of the senators then in office, except for the purpose of the election of senators and members of assembly for full terms beginning at such expiration. There shall be no reapportionment of members of assembly and no senate and assembly districts shall be established except in accordance with the provisions of this article.
E. Reapportionment of the members of the assembly and the establishment of senate and assembly districts shall be subject to revieto by the supreme court at the suit of any citizen begun loithin six months after such reapportionment and establishment, under such reasonable regulations as the legislature may prescribe, and any court before which a cause may be pending involving such a reapportionment or establishment shall give precedence thereto over all other causes and proceedings, and if such court be not in session, it shall convene promptly for the disposition of the same.
F. If the legislature shall fail to reapportion the members of the assembly and establish the senate districts at either of the two regular sessions next succeeding a gubernatorial election as herein provided, then such reapportionment and establishment shall be made by a commission appointed for the purpose. Such commission shall consist of one member from each judicial district of the state, the member from each such judicial district to be appointed by a majority of the supreme court justices therein. Such commission shall be appointed not less than thirty-one nor more than ninety days after the adjournment of the latter of such sessions; or if at the time of such adjournment there is pending, or afterwards begun, a review of a reapportionment of members of assembly and establishment of senate districts made by or pursuant to a law enacted by the legislature and on such review such reapportionment and establishment shall be finally determined to be invalid, then such commission shall be appointed within ninety days after the entry of the order or judgment stating such final determination. Within thirty days after the appointment of the members of such commission, they shall meet in the city of Albany at a time and place designated by the governor and shall organize by electing from their own number a chairman and a secretary and shall then proceed as expeditiously as practicable, to adopt a plan for the reapportionment of the members of assembly and for the establishment of senate districts in accordance with the provisions of this section. A certificate stating the plan so adopted, signed by a majority of the members of the commission, shall he filed in the department of state. Such plan shall be submitted to the people at the next general election held not less than sixty days after such certificate is filed, and it shall be the duty of the secretary of state to arrange for such submission. If such plan shall receive a majority of all the votes cast for and against it at such election, it shall become law effective at the expiration of the terms of the senators then in office or the senators, if any, elected at such election. The submission of such proposed law shall not prevent the submission at the same election of a law authorizing the contracting of a state debt. The legislature, by law, shall fix the compensation of the members of such a commission and provide for payment of the necessary expenses of the commission.
G. Nothing in this section shall prevent the division at any time of counties and towns nor the erection of new towns by the legislature.