Nicholas Baglio’29
EE Staff Writer
As trees slowly change colors, sweaters replace tank tops, candidates and voters across Trumbull are preparing for this year’s local election on Nov. 3rd, 2026. Driving around town, bright campaign signs and political advertisements, taken over many street corners of the community, showing that election season is here. Many students are asking what this year’s election includes and how they can participate.
To start, Trumbull is divided into 5 basic districts: District 123 which is fully inside Trumbull; District 112, which includes parts of Trumbull along with Easton and Monroe; District 122, covering sections of Trumbull as well as areas of Shelton and Stratford; and District 134 partially makes up Trumbull and Fairfield. Additionally, District 22, covering the entire town of Trumbull, along with parts of Monroe and Bridgeport. This district elects State Senators.
Each district has a candidate representing the Republican and Democratic party for state representative. For example, Mr. Bill Mecca (D) is running for state representative in District 123 as well as Mr. David Rutigliano (R). However, District 22 is different because it covers a larger amount of Connecticut, and candidates Ms. Sujata Gadkar-Wilcox (D) and Mr. Scott Modlin (R) are both running for State Senator.
Mecca, a Trumbull resident, father, and candidate running for state representative has been in politics for years and has lots of information to share. Mecca said he first was involved in politics “…in 2006 by hosting an event supporting former First Selectman Ray Baldwin’s re-election and was invited by my fellow Booth Hill parents to attend as the education budgets were not addressing the overcrowding and increased demands on teachers and administrators at Booth Hill and THS. It wasn’t until I was President of the NIA that his name started to surface amongst those involved in politics as a potential candidate.”
Over the years, Mecca has served on various boards, including the Pinewood Lake Association and the NIA while also leading town improvements. He helped approve the renovations of Hillcrest Middle School, upgrade Trumbull’s athletic fields, construct the new Senior Center, and fix the town police pension.
A survey of 7 graduating seniors showed that only one of the students was a registered voter. However, 80% of the surveyed students said they are interested in politics and would like to know more on how they can participate in the election, even though they aren’t eligible voters.
“Students can be involved in a variety of ways whether it is volunteering for local candidates through the Town Democratic and/or Republic Committees,” said Mecca. “Encouraging the adults in their lives to vote part in this year’s State Rep and State Senate elections is also an option.”
With the local election approaching, voters, students, and citizens of Trumbull have many ways of how they can participate in this year’s election, whether it is volunteering, voting, or reinforcing the idea to get out and vote. According to Dr. Mecca, “Trumbull citizens can vote early at the Library on Quality Street from Monday, October 19th to Sunday, November 2nd. Otherwise, they must vote at their assigned polling places by District on Election Day which is Tuesday, November 3rd.”
Polls are open from 6 a.m. to 8 p.m. at the assigned polling place. By visiting the State of Connecticut Secretary of State’s website at https://portaldir.ct.gov/sots/lookup.aspx or by calling the Trumbull Registrar’s Office at 203-452-5058 or 203-452-5059, one can see where your assigned voting ballot is and if one is a registered voter.
Photo courtesy: Cair California: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 2.0 Generic https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/