Americans overwhelmingly voted against data centers in the midterms
Nowhere was the rebuke stronger than the now-blue Ohio.
On Tuesday evening Americans voted overwhelmingly to restrict the country's data center boom. In local elections across the United States, data centers were the subject of 45 ballot measures in 10 states. As of early Wednesday morning, 33 measures to restrict the facilities in some form had passed, with another six projected to go the way of anti-data center advocates, according to tracking website Data Centers on the Ballot.
All told, only one municipality, the City of Harwood in North Dakota, voted against an amendment that would have mandated the local government to hold public hearings before approving large industrial projects like 100-megawatt data centers. The measures that passed were varied, but included outright bans, temporary moratoriums, limits on energy use and mandates that elected officials obtain public approval before allowing a project to move forward. Five localities have yet to post any voting data.
Nowhere did the American public reject data centers more forcefully than in Ohio. The state is currently home to 257 data centers. On Tuesday, data centers were on 20 ballots across the state, and the vote to restrict the facilities has either already won or is projected to win in every instance. Notably, outright bans were on the ballot in the cities of Urbana and Hubbard, and the vote there wasn't even close. Residents voted by wide margins — 76 and 77 percent, respectively — in favor of not allowing data centers in their backyard.
In the state's US Senate race, Democrat Sherrod Brown made opposing data centers the center of his platform. He labeled his opponent, Senator Jon Husted, the "the face of data centers," calling him the "reason" there are more than 200 of the facilities across the state. The Associated Press declared Brown the winner of the contest last night. Data center backlash appears to have played a part in other races across the country as well, with an NBC exit poll reporting 56 percent of voters saying AI and data centers played either a "crucial or major factor" in their vote for Congress.