In California, voters must change their party registration well in advance of the nominating activity, declaring that they intend to affiliate with the new party at the next primary. If the party fails to qualify, they are not permitted to vote in any primary.

In Texas, a new party simply organizes its nominating activities, and if enough voters show up, then both the nominations and the party are recognized by the State. Parties, primaries, and conventions are organized on a county-by-county basis in Texas. So some voters who support the new party are unable to attend a convention. The state lets the new party augment the lists of precinct convention attendees with a petition. Any voter who did not attend a convention may sign the petition and effectively affiliate with the new party and its initial nominating activities.

Imagine you had two voters. One said that in his voting lifetime there had been 9 independent candidates for Congress in his entire state. The other said that the same was true for him.

One is 30 years old, and the other 60. Which is from California, and which is from Texas?

Texas is the only state that won’t let primary voters sing a new party petition.

It is to be expected that pushing back the mailing deadline for overseas ballots will have an effect on all earlier deadlines. This is why it would have been a more desirable solution for the federal government to operate overseas polling stations at military bases, embassies, and consulates. But simply pushing back deadlines was a no-brainer. That is why it would be expected that Congress would choose that solution.

In Texas, qualification and nomination are integrated. A new party qualifies based on the number of voters who participate in the initial stage of their conventions (supplemented by signatures of voters who did not attend). And existing small parties also nominate by convention, and the precinct conventions and primaries are contemporaneous.