Voters Said No to Data Centres in 40 of 41 Local Ballot Measures, From Ohio Towns to Alhambra

Beyond Ohio, Alhambra's citywide ban passed with 82 percent and joins Monterey Park as the only such bans in California. Edgewater, Florida, approved a charter amendment prohibiting new data centres with 77 percent. In Kansas, El Dorado backed a ten-year ban on high-impact data centres and certain energy storage systems with 71 percent, Emporia passed a ban with 60 percent, and Ottawa barred facilities above 25 megawatts with 69 percent. Four Maine towns, North Berwick, Peru, Wells and Wiscasset, approved bans or moratoriums with between 66 and 82 percent. In Janesville, Wisconsin, 63 percent voted to require voter approval for any change to the former General Motors site where a data centre had been floated.

Were the Illinois data centre votes binding?

No. Illinois put seven advisory questions on the ballot, and the framing matters. Bloomington voters urged their council to impose a moratorium on large-scale data centres with 78 percent, and Morgan County asked for restrictions with 88 percent. In five townships the question was put the other way, asking whether officials should allow data centres, and voters said no: in Joliet Township only 21 percent said yes, a result other outlets reported as nearly 80 percent voting to restrict. The Washington Post, cited in that coverage, counted bans or restrictions passing in at least 29 jurisdictions, and an October Post-ABC-Ipsos poll had found seven in ten Americans, including a majority of Republicans, opposed to new data centre construction in their own communities.

Some of Tuesday's results remain subject to certification and, in a few cases, legal review.

What the data centre backlash means for the AI build-out

The local votes sit inside a bigger electoral story. Texas elected Gina Hinojosa governor on a platform that includes a moratorium on certain data centre projects and tougher rules on ratepayers and the environment, and NBC exit polling cited by Reason found 56 percent of voters calling AI and data centres a crucial or major factor in their vote even where nothing was on the ballot. Earlier this year six other local measures, from Canterbury, New Hampshire, to Nottingham's 12-month permitting moratorium, had all gone the same way by 66 to 90 percent, and three more are due in December, including a Mandan, North Dakota, ban on anything over 25 megawatts.

None of this stops the hyperscalers. The measures bind only the places that passed them, the Illinois votes are advisory, and several of the towns involved, Edgewater and Alhambra among them, had no data centre application pending. What Tuesday did establish is that where residents are asked directly, the answer is a firm no, and that developers hunting cheap land and power will now have to price in the possibility of a referendum. The next test is the December ballots, and then whether a new Texas governor turns a local mood into state rules.