§ 128 — Saving clause

§ 128. Saving clause. a. If the districts described in this article do\nnot carry out the purposes thereof, because of unintentional omission;\nduplications; overlapping areas; erroneous nomenclature; lack of\nadequate maps or descriptions of political subdivisions, wards, or other\ndivisions thereof, or of their boundary line; street closings, changes\nin names of streets, or other changes of public places; alteration of\nthe boundary or courses of waters or waterways, filling in or lands\nunder water, accretion or other changes in shorelines; or alteration of\ncourses, rights of way, or lines of public utilities or other\nconditions, then the state board of elections, at the request of any\nperson aggrieved thereby, or any candidate affected thereby shall, by\norder, correct such omissions, overlaps, erroneous nomenclature, or\nother defects in the description of districts so as to accomplish the\npurposes and objectives of this article.\n b. In promulgating such orders, the state board of elections, in\naddition to achieving equality in the population of districts and\ninsuring that all areas of the state are completely and accurately\nencompassed in such districts, shall be guided by the following\nstandards:\n (1) Gaps in the description of any district shall be completed in a\nmanner which results in a total description of that district consonant\nwith the description of adjacent districts and in complete contiguity of\ndistricts.\n (2) Areas of the state included within the descriptions of more than\none district shall be allocated to the district having the lowest\npopulation.\n (3) Areas of the state not included within the descriptions of any\ndistrict shall be allocated to the adjacent district having the lowest\npopulation.\n (4) In the event that the area subject to corrected description or\nallocation as provided in paragraph one, two or three of this\nsubdivision is of such size or contains such population that its\ninclusion as a unit in any district would result in substantial\ndisparity in the size, shape or population of such district, then the\nstate board of elections may allocate portions of such area to two or\nmore districts.\n (5) In any allocation of area or correction of descriptions made\npursuant to this section, the state board of elections shall, consistent\nwith the foregoing standards, preserve the contiguity and compactness of\ndistricts and avoid the unnecessary division of political subdivisions.\n c. Copies of such orders shall be filed by the state board of\nelections in its own office and in the office of the affected boards of\nelection. A copy of each such order shall also be filed by the state\nboard with the legislative bill drafting commission to facilitate it in\nperforming its functions under section seventy-b of the public officers\nlaw. In addition, a copy of such order shall be served upon the person\nor candidate, if any, who instituted the application for such an order.\nThe state board of elections may adopt reasonable rules regulating the\nprocedure for applications for orders under this section in the manner\nof serving and filing any notice or copy of orders relating thereto.\n d. Upon the filing of such an order, the description of any affected\ndistrict shall be deemed to have been corrected in the manner provided\nin such order to the full extent as if such correction had been\ncontained in the original description set forth in this article.\n e. In furtherance of effectuating the provisions of subdivision d of\nthis section, the legislative bill drafting commission, upon receipt\nfrom the state board of elections of an order promulgated pursuant to\nsubdivision b of this section, and upon the approval of the temporary\npresident of the senate and the speaker of the assembly, shall cause the\ndescription of a senate district or assembly district altered pursuant\nto any such order to be revised accordingly within its data base of the\nlaws of the state of New York so that such altered district may be\ncontained in a publication of the state law and be certified to as a\ncorrect transcript of the text of law relating thereto such district in\nthe manner authorized by section seventy-b of the public officers law.\n