From today’s New York Times:

Advisers to Donald J. Trump keep reassuring Republicans that there is still plenty of time to rescue his candidacy — nearly three months to counter Hillary Clinton’s vast operation in swing states and get Mr. Trump on message.

The Trump team had better check the calendar.

There are 35 states and the District of Columbia that permit voters to cast ballots at polls or by email prior to November 8th. Those states include Minnesota and South Dakota (Sept 23), Ohio (October 12th) and Arizona (Oct 12th). North Carolina and Florida start their voting in late October.

Nearly 32 percent of voters cast their ballots before Election Day in 2012, according to census data, compared with 29.7 percent in 2008 and 20 percent in 2004.

The Clinton campaign is now focused on getting out the early vote, organizing at the county level, aided by what the Times describes as former “top lieutenants” from the Obama campaign. If they can get as many people as possible voting early in so-called “swing states,” they can divert far more resources into classic “‘battleground” states, such as Florida, North Carolina and Ohio. As David Plouffe, interviewed for the article points out, “[i]f you have an accurate model of how you are performing in early vote, you have an exact picture of where the race stands.”

Trump’s pathological inability to keep from running his mouth off has dramatically limited his chance to alter voters’ perceptions of him prior to the onset of voting in many states. Veterans of GOP campaigns past are shaking their heads in disbelief:

“When you have something as catastrophic as the Trump campaign is becoming, there aren’t enough weeks left to turn things around, and little ability to organize effectively and capture a strong share of the early vote,” said Mike Murphy, a veteran Republican strategist who worked on behalf of Jeb Bush during the primaries.

 Neil Newhouse, Mitt Romney’s pollster, agrees:

“As many as 40 percent of voters cast ballots in the early states, and you can’t organize overnight, or even in just a few weeks, and win them,” said Neil Newhouse, who was Mitt Romney’s pollster in 2012.

Trump’s campaign says they are relying on Trump’s anticipated performance in the debates to motivate his voters to vote early, pointing to the first 2012 Obama-Romney debate, after which the Romney campaign was able to capitalize on their debate “win,” mobilizing large numbers of Republicans to cast early ballots.

But, as the article points out, Romney had an organization and an infrastructure built up to do just that.  Beyond his rallies and his ineffable certainty of his own greatness, Trump has no organization to speak of, and likely will not be able to jury-rig one in time to take advantage of early voting.

Bottom line—if you can vote early—DO IT.

A calendar of early voting opportunities by state is here.