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Data Centers on the Ballot, a tracker, showed 33 restrictions passed by this morning, six more leading and five without posted results. One measure failed, in Harwood, North Dakota, where voters rejected an extra review step for industrial projects. Counts differ by method: The Washington Post has at least 29 jurisdictions, Ballotpedia counted 41 local measures in 10 states, 13 of which it classed as favoring development, and the tracker's own list reached about 45.
Ohio held more than half of the votes. Eighteen municipalities voted on 21 measures, at least 14 passed bans or restrictions, and all five central Ohio communities with a measure voted against data centers.
Trenton passed a ban on sites over 25 megawatts with about 80% of the vote, aimed at an 18-building Amazon Web Services campus. A four-building AWS campus already under construction nearby likely survives it. Wilmington voters rejected rezoning in four referendums, also at about 80%, and Ashville voters backed blocking a campus already being built.
Ohio already has more than 125 local . S&P counts more than 145 US projects delayed or canceled through early August. An October Ohio poll had 55% against data center construction in the state and 22% for it, with 65% against tax breaks for developers. Keith Durkin, who runs Ohio Northern University's civics institute, told Fortune: "I've never seen any pro-data center advertising."
Voters back data center limits in at least 33 communities, and only one measure fails
Data Centers on the Ballot, a tracker, showed 33 restrictions passed by this morning, six more leading and five without posted results. One measure failed, in Harwood, North Dakota, where voters rejected an extra review step for industrial projects. Counts differ by method: The Washington Post has at least 29 jurisdictions, Ballotpedia counted 41 local measures in 10 states, 13 of which it classed as favoring development, and the tracker's own list reached about 45.
Ohio held more than half of the votes. Eighteen municipalities voted on 21 measures, at least 14 passed bans or restrictions, and all five central Ohio communities with a measure voted against data centers. Trenton passed a ban on sites over 25 megawatts with about 80% of the vote, aimed at an 18-building Amazon Web Services campus. A four-building AWS campus already under construction nearby likely survives it. Wilmington voters rejected rezoning in four referendums, also at about 80%, and Ashville voters backed blocking a campus already being built.
Ohio already has more than 125 local moratoriums. S&P counts more than 145 US projects delayed or canceled through early August. An October Ohio poll had 55% against data center construction in the state and 22% for it, with 65% against tax breaks for developers. Keith Durkin, who runs Ohio Northern University's civics institute, told Fortune: "I've never seen any pro-data center advertising." SourcesBBB
Sources
- BOhio data center ballot measures (Fortune)fortune.com
- BAI data centers comprehensively defeated at US midterm elections (Tom's Hardware)tomshardware.com
- BVoters pass over 20 ballot measures to ban or restrict data centers (Washington Post, read via Techmeme summary)washingtonpost.com
This story ran in the Morning Brief of November 4th 2026.