A lone banner along State Highway 4 announced the location on Tuesday of the only voting center in what is sure to be a newly incorporated town arising on a spit of land at the southern tip of Texas.
On the ballot: A measure to formally launch Starbase, Texas, the town long dreamed of by Elon Musk to be home to his rocket company, SpaceX, and its 3,500 employees. Voting was taking place, appropriately enough, at a SpaceX building usually closed to visitors.
It has been a tough few weeks for Mr. Musk. Tesla announced on Tuesday its profits fell 71 percent in the first three months of the year. The company’s stock price has been plunging, denting Mr. Musk’s still-fabulous wealth. His work slashing the federal government has made him reviled in many parts of the country. He has publicly tussled with other advisers at the Trump White House, where he has ensconced himself.
But the Starbase vote is a bright spot for the megabillionaire.
A little more than four years ago, Mr. Musk began publicly suggesting a fanciful new name for the stretch of coastal wetlands where SpaceX builds and launches its rockets. For a while, it seemed like just calling it Starbase would be enough. But as the company grew its footprint, moving its corporate headquarters and feverishly building housing to keep up with its swelling work force, the boss wanted a real town.
With voting now underway, that reality could be declared on May 3, Election Day, when voting ends.
Only a few dozen voters came out on the first day of early voting. There were, after all, just 279 people eligible to cast a ballot, 90 percent of whom have flocked to the area and registered since the start of 2024, according to county records obtained by The New York Times in a public information act request. The proposed city, at about 1.5 square miles, or a little larger than Central Park, would be populated almost exclusively by employees of SpaceX and their relatives. Voting concludes on May 3.
But small as the town may be, Mr. Musk wanted it. And the denizens were no doubt going to oblige, even if they didn’t much want to talk about it.
“I choose not to answer!” one man snapped after he was asked whether he had voted for Starbase’s incorporation, as well as its first mayor and two city commissioners. He hustled from the voting center to a waiting company transportation van.
“No comment,” another muttered, ducking into a convenience store that is only open to employees, who use a key card to unlock the door.
“I’d rather not say,” said a woman walking her dog and wearing a T-shirt reading “Kale.”
Reticent as they were, the would-be Starbasers — who live in a mix of Airstream trailers, modular homes and refurbished midcentury houses with Cybertrucks out front — were deciding on whether to create a kind of company town that recalled an earlier era of American industry.
Like those company towns of yore, the vote almost certainly will be strongly in favor, if not unanimous, the sort of lopsided victory that a titan of industry might expect but that rarely occurs in most free and fair elections in this divided nation.
“It’s really starting to grow and a lot of people are moving out here, so it does make sense to be incorporated, especially with the distance to Brownsville,” Texas, which is about 20 miles and 40 minutes away, one SpaceX employee said after voting for the measure. He asked to be referred to only by his first name, Austin.
The demographics of the registered voters speak to the nature of the nascent Starbase community: Two-thirds are men, and the average age is about 27. Most have no voting history in Texas.
All around, dozens of new houses were being built. Two excavators crushed old concrete into dust just steps from the voting center on Tuesday.
The company has not described its reasons for wanting to incorporate a new city around itself. Neither a SpaceX spokesman nor Mr. Musk responded to requests for comment.
But it could try to use the new governmental entity to gain greater control over the local public beach, which must close for safety during nearby rocket launches — for years a point of contention with Brownsville residents. A bill in the state capitol, already approved by the Texas Senate, would give the new city of Starbase the power to close the beach during weekday launches, something that currently requires county approval.
“This will put beach closures directly in the hands of SpaceX, which at this time is handing the power to Elon Musk,” Craig Nazor of the Texas chapter of the Sierra Club said during a public hearing last month.
Ahead of the vote, the company made some effort to reach out to the few homeowners not connected to SpaceX, holding occasional video meetings.
“They’re doing better,” said Mary Bloomer, 60, standing outside the ranch home that has been in her husband’s family since the 1970s. She said she attended one video meeting about the vote with Gunnar Milburn, the candidate for mayor and SpaceX’s security manager. He introduced himself but didn’t say much about what the incorporation would mean for residents, she said.
Like many longtime homeowners who remain in the area they still refer to as Boca Chica Village, Ms. Bloomer comes down only part of the year and is not registered to vote there.
“Honestly, it wouldn’t matter what we vote,” Ms. Bloomer said as her two miniature schnauzers, Toby and Homer, circled at her feet. “We know it’s going to pass.”
Down the street from Ms. Bloomer is by far her most famous neighbor: Mr. Musk himself. He is registered to vote at his address there — a fixed-up ranch home with a large fenced-in yard. It was not clear if he planned to vote on the incorporation, though records show he voted in Brownsville in November.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if he did,” said Remi Garza, the elections administrator for Cameron County, which includes the proposed city.
Around noon on Tuesday, Mike Baillargeon, 64, and his wife drove their Cybertruck along the sand of Boca Chica beach. They had come down from East Texas to celebrate his recent retirement from software engineering, and marveled at nearby launch towers and at the community rapidly emerging around them.
“It’s an interesting concept,” Mr. Baillargeon said of the vote, comparing the push for incorporation by SpaceX to the iron mining companies in his native Minnesota that, years ago, would build towns around the mines to further their control. “I love SpaceX,” he added.
Down the beach, two couples talked near their cars about the vote. Both own vacation trailer homes in Brownsville and said they loved spending their winters along the Gulf.
Annette Coulter, 60, said she enjoyed being able to watch the rocket launches — which shook the ground under her feet at home — but worried about the ramifications the election could have on the beach.
“I think if they have a city, they’ll cut off access to us,” said Ms. Coulter, who lives in El Paso. “There’s no checks and balances.”
Her friend, Pam Taylor, 66, of Fairbanks, Alaska, had a similar concern. “It’s beautiful down here — it’s the beaches that are the draw,” Ms. Taylor said.
Joe Taylor, 67, her husband, was optimistic.
“I’m all for the Starbase and the technology we get from it,” he said. “Elon Musk is one of my heroes. He’s doing wonderful things for the country and for mankind.”
“As long as they don’t ruin things,” Ms. Taylor added.
Their discussion was somewhat academic. None were eligible to vote in the election.
