Musk wins vote to establish Starbase city

Poll shows 97.7% back the project

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Tech billionaire Elon Musk’s dream of gaining city status for his SpaceX spaceport in the southern US state of Texas became a reality yesterday, when voters overwhelmingly backed turning his Starbase into a new municipality.

The ballot, which also named a senior SpaceX representative as its mayor with 100% of the early vote, was never really in doubt.

Most of the 283 eligible voters were SpaceX employees at the site on Boca Chica Bay bordering Mexico, or had connections to the company, whose billionaire chief has long eyed a human mission to Mars.

“Starbase, Texas,’ Mr Musk wrote on his social media platform X, “is now a real city!”

His post came after polls closed and unofficial results published by Cameron County showed an unambiguous 97.7% backing the project.

Mr Musk himself is registered to vote, Cameron County Election Coordinator Remi Garza told AFP, but the South African-born, embattled 53-year-old had yet to cast his ballot when the early voting period closed on 29 April.

Official documents show that nearly 500 people live around the base in Cameron County, on land mostly owned by SpaceX or its employees.