LANSING, Mich. (AP) Some Michigan Democratic Party leaders are trying to fire up voters for Tuesday's presidential primary, despite a thin ballot that features Hillary Rodham Clinton but no other top Democrats.

U.S. Sen. Carl Levin, appearing with Michigan Democratic Party chairman Mark Brewer, said Wednesday that voters should participate in the Democratic primary because it's an important step toward "breaking the stranglehold" that Iowa and New Hampshire have in the selection of presidential candidates with early primaries and caucuses.

Michigan and Florida both incurred the wrath of national party bosses by moving up their votes, arguing more states should play a key role in picking presidential nominees. Both were stripped of all of their Democratic national convention delegates and half of their Republican delegates.

Michigan's party leaders expect the delegations will be seated at the conventions.

But a bigger issue arose when Democratic candidates Barack Obama, John Edwards and Bill Richardson pulled their names from the ballot to avoid angering Iowa and New Hampshire, which didn't like other states crowding to the front of the election calendar.

That left Democratic voters a choice of voting for uncommitted or for Clinton, Dennis Kucinich, Mike Gravel or Chris Dodd — and Dodd has dropped out of the race. None of the Democrats except Kucinich are campaigning in Michigan, although all the top Republicans are.

"It's raised a somewhat complicated situation on the Democratic side," Levin said of the truncated Democratic ballot. "But we think Democrats are up to understanding that it's critically important that they vote so that they can express themselves and have an impact on the delegates. If you don't vote, you're not going to have an impact on those delegates."

U.S. Rep. John Conyers and his wife, Detroit City Councilwoman Monica Conyers, are urging people to vote for uncommitted if their candidate isn't on the ballot. The Conyers hope that will give some national convention delegates to someone other than Clinton, who's expected to win the Michigan contest.

Write-in votes for Edwards, Obama and Richardson won't be tallied because they didn't file paperwork that would have allowed the votes to count.

The quirky Democratic ballot is not what many in the party wanted and could cause some confusion among voters. It also could cause some independents and Democrats to vote in the Republican primary, where all the candidates are on the ballot.

Bill Nowling, spokesman for the Michigan Republican Party, said he doesn't expect crossover voting will be a problem, in part because of the Democratic push to vote for uncommitted.

Former Michigan Gov. James Blanchard, a Clinton supporter, urged Clinton backers to vote in the Democratic primary even though it's likely Clinton will easily win.

He also warned those thinking of voting for uncommitted that such a vote won't guarantee any convention delegates for Edwards, Obama or Richardson because the uncommitted votes must reach a 15 percent threshold in each congressional district or statewide for those votes to result in delegates.

He said it would be better to vote for Clinton than for those who willingly took their names off the ballot and threw the Democratic contest into a tailspin.

"Hillary stayed on the ballot," Blanchard said. "She deserves support."

Michigan State University student Tara Clark, who's organizing Obama efforts at colleges and universities around the state, said supporters have been asking what they should do Tuesday. She's urging them to vote for uncommitted rather than staying home.

"It's really ... to get people to feel that their voice can still be heard in some way," she said.

The United Steelworkers union, which backs Edwards, also is urging its members to vote for uncommitted in the Democratic primary.

Levin said he expects the eventual Democratic nominee will make up for this week's absence by campaigning aggressively in Michigan before the November election.