The administration of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer underreported the number of nursing home residents who died from COVID-19 by 30 percent, according to a report by the state’s auditor general. Auditor General Doug Ringler has been haggling with the Michigan Department of Health and Human Services for months over the numbers and how to count them. His final report was made public on Jan. 17. At the start of the pandemic, Whitmer, a Democrat, issued an emergency executive order to place infected senior citizens in extended care facilities that had the ability to isolate them in a designated wing. As the infection spread, many residents and care workers died. The audit found that 8,061 elderly Michiganders died of the disease in the state’s nursing homes between March of 2020 and July 2, 2021. The officially posted death toll is 5,675, as self-reported by the state’s extended care facilities, which is …