North Dakota Town Rejects Ballot Measure Limiting Data Center Projects

Voters in Harwood, North Dakota, voted decisively against a local ballot initiative that would have introduced additional oversight and procedural hurdles for evaluating, approving, and administering data center developments.

The vote stands in sharp contrast to a broader national pushback against digital infrastructure. Across the United States during the recent election, voters approved more than 40 separate measures intended to slow or halt data center expansion, according to reporting by Mashable Tech (https://mashable.com/tech/harwood-north-dakota-data-center-election), which cited earlier accounts from Tech Insider and The Washington Post.

In Harwood, where population counts range from 845 to 940 residents across published records, 430 people cast ballots on the municipal measure. Approximately 75 percent voted against imposing the proposed administrative restrictions.

While the ballot initiative did not directly grant or deny construction permits for any specific facility, the outcome eliminates a potential regulatory barrier for infrastructure developer Applied Digital. The company has proposed a 1.8-million-square-foot, $3 billion data center campus situated just outside the town's limits.

Surging computational requirements for artificial intelligence workloads have prompted developers to pursue large parcels and power allocations in secondary and rural utility markets. While many local communities have responded with moratoriums over grid strain and land-use concerns, Harwood's vote leaves standard development review frameworks in place as Applied Digital advances its regional project.