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1 / 3The Washington Post's data center ballot count reaches 38 jurisdictions as banks start calling it a credit risk×

The tally

The Post raised its tally to at least 38 jurisdictions that rejected or restricted data centers, up from 29 this morning, and Semafor reports Democrats in more than 130 federal and governor's races aired anti-tech or anti-data center ads. Edgewater, Florida wrote a ban into its charter.

The credit risk

Semafor says banks and asset managers now treat local opposition as a credit risk and hyperscalers are hiring community liaisons.

The estimates

Estimates of the damage differ by a wide margin. Transformer quotes Goldman Sachs warning of short-term moratoria that could touch about 45% of planned US capacity expansion. SemiAnalysis counted in September that moratoriums had actually delayed only about 2.3 gigawatts against 38 gigawatts of new capacity expected in 2027, with 20 gigawatts planned inside restricted areas and 7.6% of that directly held up. That count predates Tuesday's votes and Texas.

Sources and the full story

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The Washington Post's data center ballot count reaches 38 jurisdictions as banks start calling it a credit risk

The Post raised its tally to at least 38 jurisdictions that rejected or restricted data centers, up from 29 this morning, and Semafor reports Democrats in more than 130 federal and governor's races aired anti-tech or anti-data center ads. Edgewater, Florida wrote a ban into its charter. Semafor says banks and asset managers now treat local opposition as a credit risk and hyperscalers are hiring community liaisons.

Estimates of the damage differ by a wide margin. Transformer quotes Goldman Sachs warning of short-term moratoria that could touch about 45% of planned US capacity expansion. SemiAnalysis counted in September that moratoriums had actually delayed only about 2.3 gigawatts against 38 gigawatts of new capacity expected in 2027, with 20 gigawatts planned inside restricted areas and 7.6% of that directly held up. That count predates Tuesday's votes and Texas. SourcesBBCC

Sources

• BVoters pass ballot measures to ban or restrict data centers (Washington Post, read via Techmeme summary)washingtonpost.com
• BUS voters roundly reject data centers in ballot measures (Semafor)semafor.com
• CWhat the Democratic wave means for AI policy (Transformer)transformernews.ai
• CSemiAnalysis: just 2.3 GW of US datacenters delayed by moratoriums (AI Weekly, September 16th)aiweekly.co

This story ran in the Afternoon Brief of November 4th 2026.