By JENNIFER KERR
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Those sometimes-nasty recorded political phone calls known as "robo-calls" can drive people nuts, and states are trying to crack down on them.

"People just can't stand them and do consider them an invasion of privacy," said Colorado Attorney General John Suthers, whose office is flooded with complaints from irritated voters every political season.

Indiana bans the calls. At least 11 other states restrict or ban political robo-calls. Some states require a human being to ask permission to connect a recorded message before giving a political pitch. Others require that the caller be identified and provide contact information about the group making the calls. Some states just prohibit the calls.

More than a half-dozen states are also considering restrictions - Colorado, New Jersey, Georgia, Kentucky, Nebraska, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin.

In Congress, Rep. Virginia Foxx, R-N.C., has introduced a bill to expand the federal "do not call" list, overseen by the Federal Trade Commission, to allow voters to opt out of unwanted political robo-calls. The national "do not call" list, created in 2003, contains an exemption for organizations engaged in political, charitable or survey work. Most states also have their own no-call lists.

Wednesday, Congress sent to President Bush two bills to make permanent the program to protect consumers from unwanted phone calls from telemarketers via the no-call list. Political robo-calls weren't excluded.

Robo-calls are an easy, cheap way to reach a huge number of voters. Companies that advertise the recorded calls can offer them for about 6 cents per call and send out about 2,500 calls per minute.

Indiana's law was challenged in federal courts last year by a marketing company. But an appeals court ruled that the case should not have been heard in federal court in the first place, so the Indiana law was left intact.

The House bill is H.R. 248.