Voters Reject Data Center Expansions in 40 of 41 Local Ballot Measures

Local voters across the United States delivered a decisive blow to the rapid build-out of artificial intelligence infrastructure on Tuesday, approving restrictions or rejecting pro-development proposals in 40 of 41 municipal ballot measures across 10 states.

According to data compiled by Ballotpedia and reporting by CNBC Business, the only measure to withstand the anti-data-center wave was in Harwood, North Dakota, where residents voted down a city charter amendment that would have mandated additional municipal reviews before approving industrial projects. Across nine other states—California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, New Jersey, Nevada, Ohio, and Wisconsin—voters moved to constrain data center construction amid mounting concerns over utility costs, water use, and land consumption.

The local referendums arrived as data center friction became an overt wedge issue in major statewide candidate races. In Ohio, which accounted for 21 of the 41 local measures on the ballot, Democrat Amy Acton captured the governor's mansion from Republican Vivek Ramaswamy after campaigning on a conditional moratorium requiring data center operators to cover 100 percent of their utility infrastructure costs and use union labor exclusively. In the state's U.S. Senate race, Democrat Sherrod Brown ousted Republican incumbent Jon Husted after labeling him the political champion of data center developers.

Ohio has been one of the primary targets for hyperscale expansion. In August, OpenAI announced an agreement to secure 8 gigawatts of capacity at the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus in Pike County, a SoftBank- and SB Energy-led redevelopment of a U.S. Department of Energy site backstopped by Nvidia that could ultimately cost more than $500 billion. The campus received FAST-41 federal permitting coverage in June 2026, with initial phases slated to open starting in 2028. However, the local and statewide political results cast new uncertainty over how smoothly such projects will proceed through local jurisdictions.

The political resistance extended to Texas, which industry forecasts project to become the world's largest data center market by 2030. Democratic challenger Gina Hinojosa unseated Republican Governor Greg Abbott after focusing her campaign on the tech industry's strain on the state electrical grid. A CNBC exit poll found that 56 percent of voters rated data center construction as a crucial or major factor in their voting decisions.

The election outcome compounds an already difficult financial environment for compute infrastructure. Hyperscalers have poured unprecedented capital into data centers, driving Alphabet, Amazon, and Meta into cash-flow negative territory, while chipmakers and cloud infrastructure providers saw shares sell off in October on fears of overbuilding and elevated interest rates. Following the midterm results, congressional Democrats indicated that federal scrutiny is next: Representative Greg Casar of Texas, chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said the incoming House majority will seek to call AI executives to testify under oath about grid stability and community impacts.