My workplace is planning an election-night party and calling it nonpartisan

My office social committee announced an election-night gathering in the break room. The invitation calls it nonpartisan: pizza, television coverage, and a friendly prediction game. Attendance is optional. Managers are invited.

On paper, that sounds harmless. In practice, everyone knows which coworkers are loud about politics and which managers enjoy teasing people about their views. The prediction form asks who will win several races and how different groups will vote. Even if nobody asks how I voted, choosing what I expect may be read as choosing what I want.

I mentioned this to the organizer. She said the office watched a major sporting event together and this is no different. I think it is different because the outcome concerns public power and because some employees may feel directly affected by the result. A cheering room can become uncomfortable without anyone using a slur or starting an argument.

I do not want the event banned. Coworkers can gather on their own time, and some people may genuinely value watching together. I question whether the company should host it in the workplace with supervisors present and describe the setting as neutral. Optional events are not socially optional in the same way for everyone.

A lower-risk version might be an early civic-information lunch before election day: links to official voting information, paid-time or scheduling policies if the company has them, and no discussion of employee choices. Election-night socializing could happen off-site without corporate branding or managers acting as hosts.

Would you raise this formally, decline quietly, or suggest changes to the event? What separates a genuinely inclusive civic activity at work from a political gathering that is neutral only in the invitation?