Deep in the bowels of the Jefferson County Election Office lurks a secret weapon — a weapon so effective and so irresistible, that Clerk and Recorder Amanda Gonzalez only brings it out for very important occasions.

Like elections.

That secret weapon is none other than 90-year-old county election judge Marilyn Whisenand.

With an endless supply of energy and a sparkling personality to match, it’s hard to deny her uncanny ability to bring people together for one of democracy’s most fundamental acts — casting a ballot.

The longtime Coloradan and retired CoorsTek lab technician said she made her way into the election profession by way of a serendipitous phone call.

“In 2007, I was retired, and I had a relative working as an election judge in Jefferson County,” Whisenand said. “She was doing the hiring for judges and called me because she knew I worked part-time jobs — little ones — and said, ‘I need some help. Would you be interested in being a judge?’”

Whisenand recalled going to the county office for an interview, as it was a requirement at the time to be an election judge.

“So I came for the interview, and I’ve been here ever since,” she said.

In those 17 years with the county election office, Whisenand has seen a lot of election history, including five presidential elections and the implementation of Colorado’s Voter Access and Modernized Elections Act of 2013, which allows all eligible voters to receive ballots by mail.

Whisenand said that she used to do a lot of provisional ballots in the past, but the statewide voter registration database has significantly reduced that number.

It used to be that when you went to your polling place, you may or may not be in their system, and if you weren’t, you’d get a provisional ballot, and then we’d check later to see if you were eligible,” Chief Communications and Engagement Officer Sarah McAfee said. “But now we have a system where we can check right there.”

Whisenand is most reluctant to opine on all things political.

In fact, she can be downright evasive — focusing more on the importance of the election process and less on election rhetoric.

Ask her which presidential election she found most fascinating or troubling, and she’ll tell you she “couldn’t say because each one was so different.”

And that has endeared her to all with whom she works.

She’s made friends with people of all political backgrounds, some of whom might not be friends outside of the election office walls.

“You go out in the world and you see all the news headlines about people not getting along or breaking out into fights,” Gonzalez said, “but when you come in here, you see that’s simply not the case. We have bipartisan teams doing every part of ballot processing and dedicated people who just really want to make sure that their democracy is working for everybody.”

However, Whisenand’s political neutrality is not the only thing keeping things humming in the election office’s basement: It’s also the bingo games and the pre-election potluck.

“We play bingo between waves of ballots, mostly on election night,” she said. “If we have an hour or more to wait, then we play to pass the time.”

Whisenand, who also volunteers at a food pantry and a thrift shop in Golden, was overjoyed to see two brand new bingo games come into the shop, knowing they would soon be well-used on election night.

Volunteers make small gift bags with candy, peanuts, or little toys to add to the excitement and distract election workers from watching the clock between batches of incoming ballots.

“But the number one thing everybody asks is, ‘When is the potluck?” Whisenand said.

A couple of weeks or so before each election, Whisenand and her 150 friends and co-workers assemble a huge potluck lunch in the basement of the building and invite other departments to mark their return for yet another election.

“We just all get together and bring something,” she said.

The ‘we’ in that statement, Gonzalez said, “is bipartisan teams: Democrats, Republicans and unaffiliated. You see some of the stuff on TV, and you think there’s like no way different parties can get along — and literally, we’re all just sitting here having potluck together.”

Whisenand said the divisiveness of today’s political environment breaks her heart, but she still has faith in the democratic process.

“Seeing scary things on the news, people often think there’s one elected official who is the ‘great and powerful Oz,’ controlling all the levers,” Gonzalez said. “In reality, it’s hardworking people like Marilyn … committed to making democracy work.”