NEW HAVEN, Conn. (WTNH) — Gov. Ned Lamont (D-Conn.) removed Carleton Giles as former chair of Connecticut’s Board of Pardons and Paroles amid controversy over the spike in prison sentence commutations.

After granting just six commutations between 2016 and 2021, the state’s Board of Pardons and Parole commuted 71 sentences in 2022. 

The Democrat-controlled state Senate voted 21-14 to allow Giles to remain a board member.

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Connecticut Secretary of the State Stephanie Thomas said hundreds of voting machines need to be replaced because they are unstable and unreliable. 

Thomas said the machines are so inefficient that ballots had to be counted by hand during the primary elections last August because some voting machines had meltdowns.

She called for $25 million in bonding funds to purchase 3,000 new tabulators.