They seem to come right when you've sat down to dinner. Just as you are about to lift that first fork of food to your mouth, the phone rings.

You trudge over and pick it up. Not only is it a political telemarketing call, but it's an automated one, to boot. You can't even (rationally, that is) scream at it. True insult to injury.

Officials with a non-profit Washington, D.C. political advocacy group said Monday that they feel the pain of Californians who endure these so-called "robocalls" during election season and are going to try and do something about it.

Representatives with the National Political Do Not Contact Registry announced they are investigating a California law that bans the automated political phone messages.

Shaun Dakin, the registry's founder and chief executive officer, said the NPDNC will move to demand that the California Public Utilities Commission enforce the code on its books, Sections 2871-2876. The law requires that most automated calls be introduced by a live person, which almost never happens, Dakin says. He added that his organization believes that the commission has not tried to enforce the law.  

"We hope to bring the first legitimate complaint under the CPUC code and stop robocalls in California in time for the election this fall," said Dakin in a press statement. "It is time that California voters are able to protect their privacy. Robocalls in the state are illegal, but no one has enforced the law to date.  In fact, during the most recent primaries California voters were inundated with millions of robocalls from both McCain and Obama."

Dakin said utilities Commission Code Sections 2871-2876 clearly prohibits any form of auto-dialer calls or robocalls being made in California unless the call is preceded by a live voice: "only after an unrecorded, natural voice announcement has been made to the person called by the person calling."   

"With the 2008 presidential election garnering more attention than elections in the recent past, it is a sure bet that campaigns will turn to robocalls as a way to get their message out, particularly in California which has a very large and expensive media market," said Dakin. "While we have a base of voters that have registered their number for free at StopPoliticalCalls.org to start with, if other California voters want to join the registry, we will be happy to hear from them and will include them in the complaint filed with the California PUC."  

For California residents interested in joining the NPDNC's complaint to the CPUC they should do two things:

1. Go to the NPDNC website at http://www.stoppoliticalcalls.org/ and register their phone number for free.

2. After activating their account, they should return to the home page and click on "CA Robocall Complaint Form" or go directly to http://www.stopillegalcarobocalls.org/ and fill out the requested information.