April 22 is coming quickly and while no one knows if Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton will win the Pennsylvania primary, one thing we do know is that Pennsylvania voters will be smothered with campaign messages and bombarded by robocalls. At one point in the runup to the recent Ohio primary, 5,000 voters were awakened by a rogue automated phone call between 12:30 a.m. and 3 a.m.

On Feb. 7 Pennsylvania state lawmakers introduced legislation to regulate robocalls. Sen. Michael O'Pake, D-Reading, and Rep. Mike McGeehan, D-Philadelphia, introduced Senate Bill 70 and House Bill 293 to cover automated political messages under the state's "do not call" law. On Feb. 12 Sen. Arlen Specter, R-Pa., co-sponsored the Robocall Privacy Act in the U.S. Senate.

While many Pennsylvania residents might believe these bills would provide relief in advance of the April 22 primary or the November general election, they would be mistaken. The cold reality is that the bills likely will get buried in committee, where they now reside.

Death in committee is the typical end for political robocall bills across the nation; only three states ban them. Last month in Colorado, for instance, state Sen. Paula E. Sandoval introduced robocall legislation to much press attention only to see the bill expire in subcommittee a few weeks later.

Why? Lawmakers who opposed the bill cited the right to free speech.

Right.

Most politicians do not want to regulate robocalls because they do not want to take a cheap political weapon off the table.

When I testified in front of the U.S. Senate Committee on Rules and Administration last month, Sen. Robert Bennett, R-Utah, asked why on earth a politician would pay for robocalls when he knows they do nothing but frustrate and alienate voters. Why indeed.

Every day I talk to robocall consultants, campaign operatives and candidates. I ask them to show me the money. Show me the data that proves robocalls work.

And what do they say?

We do them because they are cheap.

We do them because the other guy is using them.

We do them because they are fast; we can respond quickly to charges made by the other side.

We do them because we can.

Not once have they provided evidence that robocalls work, that they persuade voters to vote for a candidate or get voters to the polls.

The Brookings Institution and Yale University conducted the only respected study of robocalls. The conclusion? There is not one shred of evidence that robocalls work.

What we do know is that they are an epidemic and are invading the homes and the privacy of voters.

At the voluntary National Political Do Not Contact Registry, our members report receiving 10 to 15 calls about robocalls each day during election season. Mothers are having their babies awakened from naps. Night shift workers who sleep during the day are not able to get the rest they need to be productive. Seniors live in fear of a health emergency occurring while their phone line is tied up with yet another robocall.

A member wrote to us recently: "My 85-year-old mother who had a stroke sometimes is at home alone, and when these phone calls come in, it confuses her and gets her upset when someone doesn't listen to her. She doesn't understand that it is an automated call."

Politicians must listen to their constituents and put an end to this invasion of privacy. If politicians were interested in doing the right thing, they would simply agree to voluntarily abide by the wishes of those Americans who have registered their telephone numbers on the federal Do Not Call list or equivalent state lists that forbid telemarketers from calling them. But we know that politicians don't always like to do the right thing, particularly when it comes to protecting their own incumbent status.

One possible solution: the National Political Do Not Contact Registry we recently launched at www.StopPoliticalCalls.org. We're asking each candidate and political party to voluntarily agree not to contact voters who have registered on our nonpartisan, nonprofit registry. By signing up, members send a message to America's politicians: "Don't call us, we'll call you."