A Missouri House interim committee tasked with looking at how efficiently state government operates spent Monday scrutinizing the Department of Social Services. One area they focused on is how much time Social Services employees spend on their caseloads versus other tasks. Republican committee member Marsha Haefner of St. Louis County said she is concerned that department workers are spending more time registering clients to vote than they are on case files.
“I had no idea that that was the function of Missouri (Dept. of) Social Services, that we are paying state employees, who are having a problem getting their paperwork so we can get reimbursed from the federal government, we’re paying them on our nickel to register voters,” Haefner said.
Haefner said processing case files should be a higher priority for Social Services workers than registering voters. In response, Social Services Acting Director Brian Kincade said they are required by federal law to provide voter registration services to all of their clients.
