EV Day 10 Update: Musk, Economic Collapse, And Voting Against His Dystopia

Economic stability or collapse? Texans choose their future.

As someone who fancies herself an amateur futurist, I’ll admit I’m mildly obsessed with the idea of living in a world that feels plucked from the pages of a cyberpunk novel—where robotic assistants handle the mundane, neon-lined skyscrapers rise from lush, sustainable landscapes, and tech innovations drive society forward in harmony with the planet.

When I imagine this future, I can’t help but think about the policies that would make it possible. It’s not enough to dream of lush, sustainable cities or the benefits of robotics. We need a framework that will guide us there. We’ll need to think critically about how we tax automation, how we sustain society when robots take over most jobs, and how we ensure every person benefits from a tech-driven world, not just a select few. Policy, after all, isn’t just a set of rules. It’s the backbone that shapes our economy, opportunities, and, ultimately, our lives.

If we don’t implement the right policies now, we could easily set ourselves on a different path altogether—a path that looks much more like dystopia than utopia. Without careful planning and proper safeguards, we risk creating a future where technology exacerbates inequality, environmental balance gives way to unchecked exploitation, and the robots meant to enhance life end up dictating it. This is why policy matters. It’s the difference between a world where technology nurtures us and one where it disrupts, divides, and destabilizes. And it’s precisely why Elon Musk’s recent moves should be a wake-up call.

Elon Musk recently warned that Americans should brace for temporary hardships as he plans with Trump to tank the US Economy.

Musk envisions a future where drastic measures are necessary to “reset” the economy. In a recent call, he stated that significant cuts to government programs—programs millions of Americans rely on—are part of a plan to balance federal spending, even if that means initial economic pain for average households.

But what does this mean for the average American? Musk’s proposal involves massive reductions in public services, targeting programs like Social Security and essential support networks. For Musk, these cuts are a way to “trim the fat,” but these programs are lifelines for countless families, offering stability in an increasingly volatile world. The concept of “temporary hardship” might sound acceptable to someone with Musk’s wealth cushion. Still, for millions, it could mean a return to poverty, loss of healthcare, and severe disruptions in essential services.

The type of policies Musk wants could destabilize critical industries dependent on immigrant labor, like agriculture and construction, and lead to asset bubbles that would disproportionately harm working-class Americans. Musk’s vision for America resembles a controlled crash, hoping for a quick recovery but without assurance that the economy would stabilize.

Musk’s plan has alarming repercussions. Imagine a future where economic inequality intensifies, government support for the most vulnerable disappears, and the concept of shared prosperity is replaced by selective advancement. If this vision becomes reality, it won’t be the green, high-tech utopia we dream of—it will be a survival-of-the-fittest dystopia where only the wealthy thrive.

Left: The future I envision. Right: The future Elon Musk envisions.

Elon Musk’s vision for America aligns with Conservative ideology. The only difference is that he has the wealth to make it happen, and if Donald Trump wins, he’ll give Musk the power to make it a reality.

Musk says it’s necessary to crash the economy. And it’s not just him. It’s Ron Paul, Russia, and all their allies. The Christian-libertarian-conservative axis believes this is necessary to restore biblical money and to kill off the Federal Reserve. The Kremlin has been in direct contact with Musk since 2020 and chose him and the orange one as their avenue to take America down. There’s no telling what all of Mango Mussolini’s promises to Musk entail, but whatever they are, Musk is now funneling hundreds of millions of dollars into Trump’s campaign.

This is reason #5,458,125,150 that Trump should never be near the White House again.

So, what role does Texas have in all this? Besides being the location of Musk’s new home. Plenty. One way to shut Musk and Trump down is to flip Texas. How close are we?

Day 10 early voting numbers.

The total turnout for Day 10 in Texas:

• 623,063 Texans cast a ballot,

• A total of 7,505,622 ballots have been cast (in-person + mail-in),

• Or, 40.3% of registered voters.

In 2020, after 18 days of early voting, 9.7 million Texans had cast a vote. Then, another 1.6 million Texans voted on election day. With two days left of early voting, it’s doubtful that we will see the same early voting numbers that we saw in 2020, but they had an extra six days.

Another factor is the mail-in votes. There were three times as many mail-in votes in 2020 than there have been this year. Covid-19 was a factor, plus Republicans have changed the rules of voting by mail.

The question is now, how many people will vote in the last two days of early voting and how many will vote on election day?

Just after 1pm today, big, blue Harris County Election Department announced that they reached 1 million in-person voters.

And their polls are open until 9 pm today. They were over 1 million with the mail-in plus in-person yesterday.

In 2020, Harris County had a total of 1.6 million votes, if Harris County Democrats want to hit their goal of 1.1 million Democratic votes by the close of election night, they would two more big days of early voting and a huge day on Election Day.

Maybe this year, because there is no Covid-19, more people are planning to show up on Election Day. We won’t know until next week.

Blue Dallas County also hit 545K voters by mid-day.

The Secretary of State (SoS) showed Dallas at the end of yesterday at 531K for total turnout (in-person + mail-in), so it sounds like they also are having a big day.

Tarrant County is still beating Dallas’ numbers, as of yesterday. It’s hilarious because the Republicans in Tarrant have been very vocal about their large turnout in this 57% non-Anglo county. They are convinced that the high voter turnout means Republicans are excited to vote. I’m not convinced. Tarrant went blue in 2018 and 2020, and a high voter turnout will favor Democrats.

Blue Bexar County is seeing a much stronger second week of early voting than their first week. They’ve been hitting over 50K votes every day so far. In 2020, Bexar saw a total turnout of 770K. I think they can beat that this year, and bring several flips to the Texas House.

The current share of votes in Texas is (from Republican Ryan Data):

• Top Five Largest Counties: 40%

• Next 20 Largest Counties: 35%

• Remaining 229 Counties: 25%

The big, blue counties are driving the majority of the turnout.

Travis County’s turnout seems lower than it was in 2020, but again, they had 18 days of early voting. Comparing 2020 to 2024 has been difficult because of the different conditions.

While in 2020, we saw 1.6 million voters on election day, what if we see 3.2 million on election day this year? We won’t know until next week if numbers were actually down, or they just seemed like it because more people early voted in 2020 due to coronavirus.

Collin County and Denton County are both still trucking along.

James Bedwell

is now predicting that Denton County will flip this year, but not Collin County. I’m leaning toward them both flipping.

Wouldn’t that be amazing? If Dallas, Tarrant, Collin, and Denton were all blue this year? Of course, we’re all nervous about Republicans out voting us, but the historical trends and the booming population in DFW is on Democrats’ side, not the GOP.

Blue Fort Bend County and Williamson County, which went blue in 2020 are also seeing high turnout.

The gerrymandered seats in Fort Bend are more of an uphill battle, but there is one seat in Wiliamsons County that many people are counting on flipping this year (HD52).

According to Republican Ryan Data, the turnout rates based on geographical areas:

• Top Five Largest Counties: 39% of registered voters have voted.

• Next 20 Largest Counties: 42% of registered voters have voted.

• Remaining 229 Counties: 41% of registered voters have voted.

It isn’t that far off, but Republican voters (in rural counties), seem more dedicated to holding their grip on power. It seems like they know more than Democrats, that Texas is at risk of flipping blue.

Republicans are really riding on Ryan Data’s analysis that more Republican primary voters are voting than Democratic primary voters, but they continue to ignore that 45% of voters in Ryan Data’s model have no primary history. So, it could go either way.

Brazoria and Bell County are wildcards, both are close enough to flipping that with a high voter turnout we could see the counties or House seats flip. Both counties are on track to see a higher turnout than last presidential election, but how much higher is a number we’ll have to wait for.

I’ve been checking out Target Smart’s data. We looked at Target Smart a lot in 2022 (if you weren’t following me back then), and they way over-estimated Democratic turnout. All of this is done with different data modeling methods, and this year they’re showing a heavy proclivity to Republican voters, but I’m left to wonder if they over compensated it compared to last election cycle, because they’re showing about 1 million more Republican voters than Democrat, than Ryan Data is showing.

In 2022, Ryan Data wound up being more accurate than Target Smart. But as we discussed earlier this week, it’s all a guessing game, even with their fancy, expensive software. We won’t know how the votes share out until after the polls close on November 5. Until then, we can only hope for the best.

With just two more days of early voting left and Election Day right around the corner, it’s anyone’s game.

While Republicans may be clinging to their optimistic turnout data, they’re overlooking the surge in Democratic strongholds and the record-breaking voter participation in traditionally blue counties. This race isn’t settled yet, and it’s clear that Texans are turning out in numbers to make their voices heard.

So, hang on tight, because anything can happen in these final days. Here’s hoping November 5 brings the shift Texas needs. 🙏🏻

• November 1: Last day to early vote.

• November 5: Election day!

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