I've no idea who Doug Ringler is or what his politics are (he was appointed Michigan's Auditor General in 2014) but on the face of it, this just seems absurd.
Source: Michigan Advance
When Michigan Auditor General Doug Ringler initiated an audit of the 2020 election, he did so at the request of a Republican House member. However, emails indicate that Ringler, whose office is supposed to be nonpartisan, actually helped draft the request through a series of previously undisclosed meetings with House Republican leadership staff.
Ringler’s handling of the election audit has already come under fire from some Democrats, as the Michigan Advance previously reported, as well as the Office of Auditor General’s (OAG) reports on COVID-19 nursing home deaths and the state’s unemployment system.
But records obtained by the Michigan Advance provide new insight into how the election audit came about under Ringler, who was first appointed in 2014 on a unanimous vote when Republicans held the majority in the Legislature. In 2022, the GOP-led Legislature voted to reappoint him, although 26 Democrats voted against it.
Jon King's article is quite long and detailed, and well worth reading in its entirety, but this part in particular caught my eye.
A follow-up meeting with Ringler was requested by Hernandez on Feb. 16, 2021, in which he said they needed his help “honing this in a bit more,” referencing the draft of the letter that would eventually be sent requesting the audit.
Ringler responded three minutes later: “Sure. Laura (Hirst) and I will be available at our Office at 9am Thursday.”
Less than an hour after that 9 a.m. meeting on Feb. 18, 2021, Ringler sent Hernandez an email with a subject line that read, “draft 3” in which Ringler appears to have written a draft of the letter that would ultimately be sent to him.
At the top of the email, it stated: “Per our discussion this morning …”
Only the first few lines and a sentence at the very end were left unredacted, but they indicate that Ringler was participating on both sides of the request — in effect, helping to draft a letter to himself.
“Dear Mr. Ringler,” wrote Ringler. “Please accept this letter as my request for a review of various election processes to help ensure the accuracy of elections at the national, state, and local levels.”
