Hardly anybody likes to dial a telephone number and wind up talking to a machine. State Sen. R. Leo Kieffer, of Caribou, absolutely hates recorded messages and so-called voice mail, and, in his final term last year, he decided to do something about it.

Mr. Kieffer introduced a proposal to abolish all that automated recording stuff from state offices. By the time it got through the legislative mill last year, his bill had become a “resolve” that requires a report by Jan. 19 on how the various state agencies have cut back their reliance on automated telephone answering equipment.

The senator, who continues to keep track of telephone problems, figures that half a loaf is better than none. He says some progress has been made, but some agencies still give the public a lot of recorded blab and no hint how to get to speak to a live person.

Mr. Kieffer’s enforcers are the four operators at the state government information number, under the watchful eye of Supervisor Helen Trask. She listens in to be sure the public gets through to a human being: “If I find they’re on voice mail, I stick with them.”

Operator Carol J. Glidden says some of the worst offenders are Human Services, Motor Vehicles and Income Tax. “Atrocious” is her word for their telephone behavior. Their recordings don’t even tell the caller that he or she can press “0” to get a live voice on the line. An informal check confirms her list but shows improvement in Vital Records, Transportation, and Parks and Lands.

Ms. Glidden says the automated phone system is hardest on older people. “They get flustered,” she says. “I’m 55, and I get flustered.”

She doesn’t personally object to voice mail once the caller gets inside a department and reaches the phone of an individual, who may be snowed under with work. But she says some agencies “have a ways to go so realize that they’ve got to serve the public.”

Her main piece of advice to callers: “Don’t ever press the ‘1’ button. If you do, you won’t get anywhere.”