State Codes and Statutes
Statutes > Rhode-island > Title-22 > Chapter-22-1 > 22-1-3SECTION 22-1-3
§ 22-1-3 Construction of chapter –Legislative purposes. – This chapter and chapter 2 of this title shall be liberally construed toeffectuate the purposes of them and to apportion the state into senatorial orrepresentative districts in compliance with the requirements of the UnitedStates Constitution. It is intended that the senatorial or representativedistricts described in these chapters completely encompass all the area withinthe state and contain all the citizens resident in the state. It is furtherintended that the apportionment and districting provided for in this chapterand chapter 2 of this title results in the creation of districts containingsubstantially equal population. It is also intended that no senatorial orrepresentative district shall include any of the area included within thedescription of any other senatorial or representative district. If thedistricts described in this chapter and chapter 2 of this title do not carryout the purposes of them because of patent unintentional omissions,duplications, overlapping area, erroneous nomenclature, faulty description ofboundary lines, street closings, changes in names of streets or of publicplaces, alteration of the courses of rivers or streams, the filling in of landsunder water, or changes in shorelines due to accretion, the secretary of stateis authorized and empowered to correct the omissions, overlaps, erroneousnomenclature, or other defects in the description of districts so as toaccomplish the purposes and objectives of this chapter and chapter 2 of thistitle. In making these corrections, the secretary of state shall be guided bythe following standards:
(1) Gaps in the description of any district shall becompleted in a manner which results in a total description of the district inmanner consonant with the description of adjacent districts.
(2) Areas included within the descriptions of more than onedistrict shall be allocated to the district having the lowest population.
(3) Areas not included within the descriptions of anydistrict shall be allocated to the adjacent district having the lowestpopulation.
