Voters in 10 States Weigh 41 Local Data Center Measures, Backing Restrictions and Rejecting Development Support
On Election Day, November 3, voters in 10 states decided 41 local ballot measures concerning data centers. According to Route Fifty, citing a Trepp tally, as of a November 4 snapshot all 24 measures restricting data centers had passed and none had failed, while all 11 measures supporting data center development had failed and none had passed, with four measures still pending final results.
Ohio had the most measures with 21, followed by Illinois with 7, Maine with 4, Kansas with 3, and one each in Wisconsin, Nevada, New Jersey, North Dakota, Florida and California. Granville, Ohio, approved a data center ban with 82.45 percent; El Dorado, Kansas, approved a ten-year ban on high-impact data centers with about 71 percent; and voters in Alhambra, California, voted to ban data centers in their city.
Harwood, North Dakota, was the lone exception, where voters rejected a charter amendment requiring council review, a win for data center supporters. Earlier this year Monterey Park, California, passed a similar permanent ban.
An NBC exit poll found 56 percent of voters called super intelligence (SI) and data centers a crucial or major factor in their vote. Opponents have focused on data centers' power and water use and tax incentives. The tallies are preliminary, with some measures awaiting certification.
Source: Route Fifty
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：数据中心机房内的服务器机柜（CC BY 2.0）。经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Server racks inside a data center (CC BY 2.0). Via Wikimedia Commons.
