When Valerie Schechter showed up to vote in the presidential primary on Feb. 5, she expected to take a Democratic ballot and vote for Hillary Clinton. But a poll worker noticed that she was registered as a member of the Interdependent Third Party.
"I'd never even heard of it," she said.
It's no wonder. The party has no website, no phone number, no chairman, no platform. Its last known candidate was a gadfly from the tiny town of Adams who ran unsuccessfully for the state Senate in 2002 on a promise to slash water and sewer rates. He is now deceased.
And yet his party, almost miraculously, is thriving. According to state officials, 2,380 Massachusetts voters are registered members of the Interdependent Third Party. The apparently moribund political group is now the second biggest of the 18 officially recognized minor parties in the state, having swelled its ranks by 31 voters since 2006.
The reason has nothing to do with the residual appeal of the failed Senate candidate, William P. Foley. Instead, election officials trace the party's growth to voters, like Schechter, who filled out voter registration forms at the Registry of Motor Vehicles.
Massachusetts voters who enroll at the Registry must fill out forms that include check-boxes for the state's four major political parties. They also include a check-box for unenrolled to indicate that a voter wants to remain independent. A third option allows voters to write in a minor political affiliation. Election officials believe that many voters who wanted to register as independents be came confused by the selections. Rather than checking unenrolled, they checked the minor affiliation box and wrote the word independent. Clerks processing the forms then entered those voters in the party whose name seemed like the closest match, the Interdependent Third Party.
Secretary of State William F. Galvin, the state's top election official, said he has for years asked Registry workers to double-check with voters to determine whether they really want to join the Interdependent Third Party. He expressed annoyance that so many had still apparently been enrolled in the obscure party. The party, he pointed out, has more members than most others minor affiliations in the state. The Reform Party, for instance, has 576 members statewide, the Socialist Party, has 198 members, the Conservative Party has 104 members, and the We The People party has 17 members.
"We find it very suspect," Galvin said.
Ann C. Dufresne, a Registry spokeswoman, said clerks are double-checking with voters who write in the word "independent." And she said that all voters receive a confirmation slip after they register that shows the party they have joined. Anyone who wants to change parties can do so.
"There are stopgaps, but to a certain extent there's a responsibility to the person who is registering," Dufresne said.
Andrea F. Nuciforo, who beat Foley for the Senate seat in 2002, said he could not recall anyone officially affiliated with the Interdependent Third Party, other than his erstwhile competitor.
"Bill Foley is apparently contributing to democracy from beyond," said Nuciforo, who is now registrar of deeds in Berkshire County.
Foley may also be foiling democracy. Schechter, 60, a real estate broker from Hyde Park, was allowed to vote for Clinton, but her ballot was not counted because only independents and registered Democrats can vote in that party's primary. She was left feeling both angry and foolish, she said. And she has since changed her registration to "unenrolled."
"Why would I be a member of a party that doesn't exist?" she said.
Michael Levenson can be reached at mlevenson@globe.com.
