Voters reject datacenters in multiple states

Datacenters, which house the hardware for artificial intelligence and other digital services, faced significant opposition in Tuesday’s midterm elections. Voters in at least 40 jurisdictions across 10 states considered measures that would ban or restrict their development.

In Ohio, 14 municipalities passed bans or restrictions on datacenter projects, including Sunbury, where Amazon had proposed a $2 million facility. Maine saw eight municipalities approve temporary moratoriums, and Emporio, Kansas, enacted a ban on high-impact datacenters after a voter referendum.

Despite the widespread rejection, Hardwood, North Dakota, a city with a population under 1,000, voted against a proposal to restrict datacenter development. Officials in other areas where datacenters were not directly on the ballot also saw anti-datacenter candidates elected.

In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa defeated Republican Greg Abbott in a close race. Hinojosa has pledged to impose moratoriums on datacenter construction and increase community input in the approval process. Abbott had previously supported datacenters but later shifted his stance.

Other newly elected governors, including Keisha Lance Bottoms of Georgia and Amy Acton of Ohio, also committed to restricting large datacenter projects. Anti-datacenter sentiment has become a bipartisan issue, with Florida’s governor signing strict regulations on datacenters earlier this year.

Elon Musk, who spent over $400 million supporting conservative candidates, joked about datacenters in space on X. Analysts noted that the election results signal a slowdown in datacenter construction, with concerns about regulatory hurdles in the coming years, particularly in Texas.