The U.S. Postal Service warned Texas officials in July that it may be unable to deliver some mail-in ballots on time in order to meet the deadlines for them to be counted in the November 2020 presidential election. If nothing changes, the consequences for the roughly 7% of Texans who typically vote by mail in a presidential contest could be having their votes go uncounted.

This admission came after U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a megadonor President Donald Trump appointed to run the post office in May, began making changes that have resulted in mail delays around the country. At the same time, President Trump announced he would oppose funding for the USPS in order to prevent the mail service from being able to process mail-in ballots for the presidential election.

Under pressure from 20 states that have filed lawsuits against the USPS over the delays, DeJoy announced this week he would pause those changes for the rest of the year. DeJoy is scheduled to testify Friday before the U.S. Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee.

This week began convention season on the campaign trail, with Democrats holding a virtual convention to formally nominate Joe Biden and Kamala Harris as the 2020 Democratic ticket. The return to schools was high on the list of topics discussed at the Democratic National Convention, with Biden's wife Dr. Jill Biden delivering a speech from inside a classroom at the high school were she once taught. The Republican National Convention will begin next week in Charlotte, North Carolina, where Republicans will formally nominate Donald Trump for reelection.

In Texas, Democratic candidates won a legal battle to keep Green Party candidates off the statewide November ballot. The lawsuit accused the candidates of being ineligible because they failed to pay the required filing fees. The Green Party has argued those filing fees are unconstitutional. Third-party candidates in Texas rarely exceed single digits in statewide elections, but they could win enough votes to shift the outcome of a close race between a Democrat and Republican.

A new Texas poll conducted by YouGov and Rice University in August shows Trump leading Biden by 5% among likely voters. The number is higher than most recent Texas polls that have shown a close race within the margin of error. The same poll shows U.S. Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) leading Democratic challenger MJ Hegar by 6%.