def METHOD_NAME(self, value):
    """
    Because we don't always show all parties on the initial page load (we
    leave JavaScript to add the non-current parties sometimes), we need to
    ignore any input value for this field type. The MultiWidget will
    raise a ValidataionError if the party isn't actually found, so there's
    no problem with ignoring validation here.
    """
    try:
        Party.objects.current().get(ec_id__iexact=value.strip())
        return True
    except Party.DoesNotExist:
        return False