US Voters Side Against Development in All but One of 41 Data Center Ballot Measures

US voters sided against data centers in all but one of 41 local data center ballot measures in the November 3, 2026 midterm elections, CNBC reported on November 4. The only exception was Harwood, North Dakota, according to CNBC's analysis of Ballotpedia data and its own results.

The votes add a new layer to months of local pushback over power bills, water and land use around the AI data center buildout, which until now mostly took the form of moratoriums passed by city councils and county boards. Candidates who campaigned against new projects also won governor and Senate races in Ohio and Texas, the two states at the center of the industry's largest plans.

What did voters decide on data center ballot measures?

Voters backed restrictions or rejected pro-development questions in nearly every data center measure with results on November 4, 2026, according to CNBC and two separate trackers. The measures covered outright bans, temporary moratoriums, caps on energy use and requirements for public approval before a project can go ahead, Engadget reported.

The one outcome that went the other way came in Harwood, where voters rejected a city charter amendment that would have required additional review before the city approved industrial developments, including data centers, CNBC said.

Ohio carried the most votes. Ballotpedia counts 21 Ohio measures, and Engadget reported that restrictions had won or were projected to win in every Ohio contest. Outright bans on the ballot in the cities of Urbana and Hubbard passed with 76% and 77% of the vote, according to Engadget.

Why do the counts differ between trackers?

The two main trackers count different sets of measures, so CNBC cites 41 measures while Engadget and Tom's Hardware cite 45, all in 10 states. CNBC worked from Ballotpedia's list, while the other two outlets used Data Centers on the Ballot, a results site built by Redbud Consulting, a polling and data firm.

Data Centers on the Ballot also counts zoning referendums on known sites and agreements with developers, as long as the question is about data centers. By November 5, voters had backed restrictions in 39 measures on that tracker, Engadget reported, in line with the 33 passed and six projected a day earlier.

Ballotpedia counts at least 50 data center measures across 13 states for all of 2026, of which 41 were set for November 3. The six that voters had decided by October 30 all went toward greater limits on development, the site says. Taken together with CNBC's count, that leaves Harwood as the only data center vote of 2026 so far with a result reported in favor of development.

How did data centers shape the Ohio and Texas races?

Democrats who ran against the data center buildout won statewide races in Ohio and Texas on November 3, 2026, CNBC reported. In Ohio, Sherrod Brown ousted Republican Sen. Jon Husted after casting him as "the face of data centers," and Democrat Amy Acton defeated Vivek Ramaswamy for governor.

Acton supports what she calls a "conditional moratorium" that would require data centers to cover 100% of their utility costs and build only with union labor, according to CNBC. Ohio is home to the PORTS-Pike Technology Campus, where OpenAI said in August it had secured 8 gigawatts of computing capacity. SoftBank and SB Energy are developing the site with the US Department of Energy, capacity is due to come online in phases from 2028, and the project could cost more than $500 billion, CNBC reported.

In Texas, Gina Hinojosa unseated Gov. Greg Abbott after blaming him for the rapid spread of data centers across the state, according to CNBC. Abbott had ordered the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality on September 21, 2026 to pause all permits tied to data center projects, including on-site power plants, law firm Bracewell wrote at the time. Abbott lost the race six weeks after that order. The Information reported that the Texas results bring uncertainty for data centers and for Elon Musk.

A CNBC Voter Poll found that 56% of voters called data centers a crucial or major factor in their decision. Rep. Greg Casar of Texas, who chairs the Congressional Progressive Caucus, said after Democrats were projected to win the House that AI company CEOs "should be called to testify under oath," according to CNBC.

Will the votes slow the AI data center buildout?

The votes mostly reach projects that do not yet have approvals, because local bans and moratoriums usually freeze new applications rather than undo permits already granted. SemiAnalysis estimated in September 2026 that more than 300 local moratoriums had delayed only about 2.3 gigawatts of US capacity, against 38 gigawatts expected to come online in 2027, as covered in an earlier report on how little US moratoriums have delayed.

Markets moved anyway. Bloomberg reported on November 4 that CoreWeave bonds hit new lows as Texas data centers came into the crosshairs, and that Wall Street sees risks to the AI boom after the Democratic sweep. Chipmakers, neoclouds and other data center stocks had already sold off in October on worries about interest rates and overspending, CNBC said.

How did AI companies respond after the vote?

On November 5, 2026, OpenAI published a National Community Compact and a Compute Campus Policy Blueprint. For future campuses it owns and operates, OpenAI says it will pay the full cost of its electricity and the grid upgrades needed to serve it, publish site-level water and electricity use, and not use non-disclosure agreements with public officials beyond narrow carve-outs for security and trade secrets. The blueprint asks lawmakers to turn similar rules into law. OpenAI's power pledge matches one condition of Acton's proposed moratorium, but not her union labor condition: OpenAI says only that it will work with unions and training providers.

OpenAI says the compact builds on commitments it made in January 2026 and in Georgia and Ohio. Chris Lehane, its chief global affairs officer, told reporters the blueprint had been in the works since August, CNBC reported.

Meta president Dina Powell McCormick said on November 4 that the industry has "not done as good a job as we needed to explain the benefits of these investments," TechCrunch reported. "I think it's going to be harder," she said of building new sites.

What we don't know yet

• The final certified counts for each measure, including the five localities that had posted no results by early November 4.
• Whether Hinojosa will keep, extend or lift Abbott's permit freeze, and what Acton's conditional moratorium would look like as Ohio policy.
• Whether any planned project, including the PORTS-Pike campus, changes its schedule because of the results.
• Which existing sites, including PORTS-Pike, count as campuses OpenAI owns and operates under its new compact.
• How many gigawatts of planned capacity sit in the jurisdictions that passed new limits.