Data centers lost almost everywhere they appeared on ballots this week. In the first election cycle where AI infrastructure itself was a widespread ballot question, measures restricting data center development won in community after community across the United States, according to trackers cited by Tom's Hardware.
One tracker, Data Centers on the Ballot, counted roughly 45 data center-related measures across some 40 localities in 13 states. Of the restriction measures with posted results, 33 had won, with six more leading. Exactly one restriction measure — a Harwood, North Dakota question adding an extra review process for industrial projects, including data centers — had failed, and five questions still had no posted results when the tracker was consulted. For more context on this story, see our ongoing AI industry coverage.
Nearly Every Restriction Measure Passed
A second tracker covering roughly 46 measures across 10 states showed an even starker picture: of 33 measures that would limit data center construction, every single one was set to pass. Of the 13 measures written to permit data centers and their construction, 11 looked set to be defeated.
The questions put to voters varied widely. Some proposed outright permanent bans on data center development. Others imposed time-limited moratoriums or limits based on the size of a facility or the amount of power it could draw. Still others targeted the politicians rather than the projects: voters in Piqua, Ohio recalled the mayor and two council members, and the mayor of Yukon, Oklahoma was also recalled, in votes Tom's Hardware connected to data center politics in those communities.
The lopsided scoreline extended beyond the restriction questions. Local coverage from Illinois underscored the pattern: in the Chicago suburb of Aurora, a mayoral recall referendum passed, while in Joliet, a ballot question tied to a data center project failed — meaning voters there also turned back a proposed development. Across the map, the direction of the vote was remarkably consistent regardless of region, and regardless of whether the community leaned red, blue, or somewhere in between.
A Backlash Years in the Making
The results did not come out of nowhere. Polling cited by Tom's Hardware has found that roughly 70 percent of Americans oppose AI data center build-outs, and a public-comment database covering 10,000 comments found that more than 90 percent were negative. The concerns residents raise most often are local and tangible: utility bills, water use, noise, and the strain that gigawatt-scale facilities place on the power grid.
The White House had tried to soften that opposition ahead of the election. President Donald Trump announced a mandate requiring data centers to pay an "energy dividend" to local communities and expanded a "ratepayer protection pledge" to state governors and utility companies, promising that tech companies would pay their own infrastructure costs. According to Tom's Hardware, those efforts were "too little, too late" to change voters' minds.
Both parties felt the shake. In Texas, the gubernatorial result alone was enough to send AI stocks sliding, as our earlier coverage noted, after a candidate who vowed to halt data center construction won. The Washington Post described a "nationwide backlash against data centers" erupting at the polls, and Bloomberg reported that the AI data center boom is now set for upheaval after the election rout.
Will the Votes Actually Stop Projects?
The practical impact is less clear than the headlines suggest. More than 300 local data center bans and restrictions have already been enacted across the country, yet industry analyses cited by Tom's Hardware found that only three projects totaling about 2.3 gigawatts have been delayed as a result — against roughly 38 gigawatts of new capacity expected to come online by 2027.
That pattern explains the industry's cautious response. OpenAI and Anthropic have both been reportedly seeking out smaller data center deals in the 20 to 30 megawatt range, giving them flexibility as gigawatt-scale sites face permitting delays and community resistance. Developers have also begun suing local jurisdictions over bans and moratoriums, arguing that officials exceeded their authority — a legal counterattack that will now play out against a backdrop of voters who have demonstrated, at the ballot box, that they are willing to say no.
An Era of Scrutiny
National outlets framed the results as a turning point rather than a reprieve. The New York Times wrote that voters rejected AI in the midterms and that "an era of scrutiny" now begins. The Wall Street Journal called it "the Election Day revolt that threatens America's AI boom." WIRED put it more bluntly: "The Results Are In: Voters Hate Data Centers."
The industry has already begun adapting its language, with OpenAI reportedly planning a post-midterm effort to rebrand data centers as "AI compute campuses" — a pivot our coverage documented before the vote. Whether new branding, community dividends, and ratepayer pledges can outweigh the kind of opposition that just swept 33 local ballot questions is, as of this week, an open question.
What is no longer open to debate is the political reality: for the communities asked to host the physical infrastructure of AI, approval is no longer something companies can assume. It is now something they have to win — one county commission, one recall election, and one ballot measure at a time.
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