It was a bad election night for data centers. Voters across the United States rejected data center construction in 40 of the 41 local ballot measures on the issue in Tuesday's midterm elections, according to Ballotpedia's tracker, delivering a broad rebuke to the technology industry's plans for artificial intelligence infrastructure.
Of the more than 40 votes held in localities across 10 states, data centers were successful in just one, showing residents' broad opposition to building the facilities in their communities. The results are still unofficial, and some of the votes are advisory and therefore not binding on local elected officials. But the pattern was unmistakable: in every race but one, data center opponents appear to have been victorious.
Ohio accounted for the largest share, with 21 measures on the ballot. Every Ohio jurisdiction with reported results voted against development, including in Wilmington, where four rezoning proposals connected to data center projects were rejected by roughly 80 percent to 20 percent. In Hubbard, more than three-quarters of voters approved a ban on data center construction. Other states with measures were California, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Maine, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota and Wisconsin.
The results were not limited to one region or one kind of restriction. Voters in Alhambra, California, voted to ban data centers in the city, while voters in Edgewater, Florida, approved an amendment embedding a ban directly into the city's charter. In Kansas, voters adopted some of the most restrictive proposals, including a 10-year ban in El Dorado that passed 71 percent to 29 percent. In Joliet, Illinois, 79 percent of voters said no in an advisory question, and 88 percent of voters in Morgan County backed restrictions.
The one outcome widely described as favorable to the industry was in Harwood, North Dakota, where voters rejected a charter amendment that would have required an independent review and public hearing before adopting large industrial projects, including data centers. Counting six votes earlier in the year — including a ban in Monterey Park, California, that won 88.3 percent — 46 of the 47 data center measures decided in 2026 have favored limits. Three more votes are still to come: two referendums in Clarksville, Arkansas, on December 1, and a ban on data centers of 25 megawatts or more in Mandan, North Dakota, on December 15.
The backlash also shaped the top of the ticket. In Texas, the state with the most planned AI data center capacity, Democrat Gina Hinojosa beat Governor Greg Abbott after promising a moratorium on new data center construction. In Georgia, Keisha Lance Bottoms won the governor's race after calling for a pause on new data centers. According to exit polls published by NBC, 56 percent of voters described AI and data centers as a crucial or major factor in their vote, and of those, 64 percent voted for Democrats. "Voters across the country have emphatically rejected the push for AI data centers," said Mitch Jones, deputy director of Food & Water Action, a nonprofit that pushes for clean water and food.
