US midterm voters largely reject data centre expansion at the ballot box
Of 41 data-centre ballot measures in the US midterm elections, voters are on track to reject or limit projects in all but one. Concerns about electricity bills, water use and jobs are driving the opposition.
Voters in the United States midterm elections on Tuesday took part in 41 local ballot measures on data centres, and in nearly all of them they chose to reject or restrict such projects. Data centres are large facilities housing the servers that power artificial intelligence (AI) and internet services. The results suggest that resistance to their expansion has become an issue shared across party lines.
The results
According to Data Centers on the Ballot, an election-monitoring project run by Redbud Consulting, voters are on track to reject data centre development in every contest but one. Two races are still being counted, but majorities are expected to reject or limit data centres there as well. The only exception was Harwood, North Dakota, a town of fewer than 800 people, where voters defeated a measure that would have required independent reviews of large industrial projects before construction. Ohio held 21 of the 47 such votes across the country this year.
A poll in September found that 70 percent of Democrats and 57 percent of Republicans backed limiting new data centre construction.
Why voters pushed back
The Pew Research Center estimated in April that the country already had 3,000 data centres, with more than 1,500 in progress. Bhaskar Chakravorti of Tufts University says people fear for their jobs and see the physical footprint of AI in their own neighbourhoods. Critics point to heavy water and energy use that can raise electricity costs. A Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas working paper estimated that wholesale electricity prices rose 6.9 percent last year because of data centres.
Political fallout
Democrat Sherrod Brown won a Senate seat in Ohio after attacking Republican incumbent Jon Husted over his support for data centres. In Texas, Democrat Gina Hinojosa, who called for a moratorium on new approvals, beat incumbent governor Greg Abbott. Democrat James Talarico, who pledged tougher regulation, took a Republican-held Senate seat.
With Democrats poised to control both chambers of Congress, the AI industry is expected to face closer scrutiny. After the election, OpenAI published a framework pledging low-water cooling and to cover its own energy costs. On Thursday, chipmaker Nvidia lost $450bn in market value in a single trading day before gaining 4 percent in early trading on Friday.
