Washington ? The prospect of do-over presidential primaries by mail in Michigan and Florida strengthened Sunday as state and national party leaders signaled their interest during appearances on television talk shows.

Without endorsing the idea, Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean praised a new ballot by mail as a potential resolution to the conflict over providing representation at the party convention to Florida and Michigan, both of which elected disqualified slates of delegates through early primaries that violated party rules.

“It’s comprehensive. You get to vote if you’re in Iraq or a nursing home. It’s not a bad way to do this. Oregon does their general elections by a vote by mail,” Dean said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla., his state’s senior elected Democrat and a supporter of Hillary Clinton, said a mail-in primary appeared to be the best approach, given logistical constraints.

“The only thing I know is to do it over,” Nelson said, also on the CBS program. “You can’t put up the election machinery full-bore, so you’ve got to go to a different device, and I would suggest mail-in – mail a ballot to every registered Democrat in the state of Florida.”

In a bid to increase their influence in a nominating process that most political professionals expected to be settled early, Michigan and Florida moved up their primaries in advance of Feb. 5, violating a party rule that allowed early nominating contests in only four selected states: Iowa, New Hampshire, Nevada and South Carolina.

Under party rules, their delegations were disqualified, though most observers thought some representation of the states would be allowed once Democrats settled on a nominee. Both Clinton and her rival, fellow Sen. Barack Obama, agreed not to campaign in either state before their primaries; Clinton won the vote in both states.

With the possibility increasing that neither candidate will emerge from the primary season with enough elected delegates to clinch the nomination, conflict over representation of the two states has intensified. Party leaders hope to avoid alienating voters in two large states that are likely to be battlegrounds in the general election, but they also are anxious not to deepen divisions within the party by changing the rules of the nominating process in midstream.

State officials in Michigan and Florida have said they will not release more taxpayer money to pay for a do-over of the primary. Dean also has said the national party will not provide money.

The Clinton camp has pressed for the party to recognize the early primary results despite party rules. The Obama camp, meanwhile, has suggested either a new vote through a less expensive caucus – a format in which Obama has regularly outperformed Clinton – or accepting delegations split evenly between supporters of each candidate.