That seems like an obvious question: just find a calendar and count how many days until November 2, right?
And it's an important issue, too, because that's how long we have to convince people to vote for the Democratic candidate. Before Labor Day, things didn't seem quite as frantic, but now that it's less than two months, everyone is getting real serious.
However, the actual situation is more complex than that, and possible much more serious.
It turns out that according to various sources, including this one:
http://www.pewcenteronthestates.org/...
some 31 out of the 50 states have some option of voting before election day:
Six states had [in 2008] an early voting period of less than or equal to ten days, while 13 states had periods between 11 and 20 days, five states had periods between 21 and 30 days, and four states had early voting periods longer than 30 days.
Moreover, the existence of early voting, and how many days in advance one can vote, is not evenly distributed around the country:
The availability of no-excuse absentee voting is highest in the West, fairly widespread in the Midwest and South, and least available in the Northeast. All the Western states offered no-excuse absentee voting in 2008, compared to only one in 1972. Early voting is widespread in both the South and West, fairly widespread in the Midwest, and least available in the Northeast. Interestingly, the mean early voting periods in the Western states have gotten shorter since 1972 (going from 35 to 16 days), while getting longer in the Midwest states (from 22 to 29 days).
Now, this data is from 2008, but I don't see why it should differ widely from the situation in 2010. Here is a useful current summary:
http://www.longdistancevoter.org/...
This means that we have far less time than we may think to do our “politickin'” before people start voting. Obviously, once someone has actually voted for a Republican, or even turned in a ballot with blanks in some slots, that person is no longer reachable by even the most fervent campaigning.
For example, the law says that I and my fellow Californians can vote 29 days before election day. That's practically a month, cutting the time between Labor Day and Election Day for campaigning roughly in half.
Here are some observations from some other states of interest:
Arizona, about 33 days; Colorado, 15 days; Kentucky (must have a valid excuse), 12 or more days; Nevada, about 3 weeks.
It seems to me that knowing this, especially for races in states that allow no-excuse early voting a month or more before election day, should create a much more intense state of urgency.