Voters Backed Bans and Limits on Data Centers in Dozens of Local Votes

Voters backed bans or new limits on large data centers in dozens of local contests on Tuesday, with Ohio at the center.

Ballotpedia counted 41 data center measures on November 3 ballots across 10 states. A yes vote on 28 of them would limit development, through bans, moratoriums or new approval rules. The other 13 would have facilitated development.

Late Tuesday, 33 measures to restrict data centers had passed or were leading in ongoing counts, Stateline reported. Only one restrictive measure failed, in Harwood, North Dakota. All of these results are unofficial until local officials certify them.

The measures were not all bans. They included outright prohibitions, temporary halts called moratoriums, limits on energy use, and requirements for voter approval before construction. Concerns behind them included energy costs, water use, noise, pollution and lost farmland.

Ohio carried more than half the ballot

Ohio decided 21 measures in 18 municipalities, more than any other state. The Cincinnati Enquirer reported bans passing in at least 10 municipalities. The towns included Conneaut, Defiance, Granville, Hubbard, Pataskala, Piqua, Sunbury, Trenton, Upper Sandusky and Urbana.

Most of the Ohio bans apply only above a size threshold, often 25 megawatts of power demand. A megawatt is a unit of power, and 25 megawatts is far below the draw of a large AI campus. Reason uses that level to define a hyperscaler, a very large data center.

The margins were rarely close in central Ohio. Pataskala banned data centers larger than 25 megawatts with 74% support, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Granville passed its ban with more than 82% support, and Sunbury passed with 79%.

Two Ohio votes touched projects already in motion

In Ashville, almost 82% of voters reversed the village council's agreement with EdgeConneX, the Enquirer reported. The deal covered two data centers and an 800 megawatt project on 195 acres, The Dispatch reported. The project also includes a natural gas plant to power it.

That vote does not by itself settle what gets built in Ashville. The village administrator told The Dispatch that developers had been working every day and that buildings were being erected. Whether the reversal stops, delays or reshapes the project is not yet known.

Trenton took a different path with a similar result. Almost 80% of its voters banned data centers using over 25 megawatts of electricity, the Enquirer reported. The ban applies only inside city limits.

That limit clouds, but does not block, a planned Amazon Web Services site just outside town. The Enquirer reported the project could still move forward if the land stays in the neighboring rural townships. A township zoning resolution that would ban data centers there faces a county hearing on November 10.

Grove City chose a vote, not a ban

Grove City voters approved a charter amendment with 55% support. It requires voter approval for large developments, including data centers, that occupy more than 50 contiguous acres. The same trigger applies above 20 megawatts of power or 500,000 gallons of water a day.

Bans also passed where nothing was planned

In Edgewater, Florida, voters amended the city charter to prohibit approval, construction, expansion or operation of new data centers, Reason reported. No data centers operate in Edgewater, and Reason reported no public plans to build one there. The ban is preventive, not a response to a live project.

Alhambra, California, voted to ban data centers in all zones of the city, Reason reported. It joins Monterey Park as the only California cities with such bans. Kansas voters also approved bans in El Dorado, Emporia and Ottawa, Reason reported.

Markets priced scrutiny, not cancellations

Data center operators slipped in premarket trading on Wednesday. Reuters reported Core Scientific down 2.8% and IREN down 1.4% in that premarket snapshot. Applied Digital and CoreWeave were marginally lower in the same snapshot.

Reuters tied the move to prospects of tougher oversight after the Democratic sweep, alongside the public backlash behind the local votes. That is a repricing of scrutiny, not evidence that any project has been cancelled. No report reviewed for this article showed a hyperscaler cancelling or delaying a named project because of a local ban.

What remains unknown

What remains unknown starts with certification. Ohio county boards must complete their canvass and certify results no later than 21 days after Election Day, the Secretary of State's office said. Final totals for roughly a dozen national measures had not been announced late Tuesday.

The legal reach of the Ashville reversal is also unknown, because work there was already under way. The same is true in Trenton, where the answer depends on land outside the city and a township hearing. It is also unknown whether any developer will change a planned site because of these votes.

What to watch next

What to watch next starts on November 10, when Butler County hears the St. Clair Township resolution on the Trenton-area site. Ohio certifications follow within 21 days of the election. Two more data center votes are already scheduled, in Clarksville, Arkansas, on December 1 and Mandan, North Dakota, on December 15.

In Ohio, Conserve Ohio is finalizing a ballot initiative for a statewide ban on large data centers next year, The Dispatch reported. Watch for any statement from Amazon Web Services or EdgeConneX on the Trenton and Ashville sites. Silence so far means the local votes have changed the politics first, and the projects only if developers say so.