Ohio voters back data center bans and restrictions in early midterm results

Early returns from the November 3 US midterm elections point to broad local support for limiting data centers in Ohio, the state with the most such measures on the ballot. According to Fortune, Ohio voters decided 21 data center questions in 18 municipalities, and at least 14 communities approved bans or other restrictions. Some of the results are unofficial and could change when counts are certified.

What passed

In Sunbury, a charter amendment banning data centers of 25 megawatts or more appears to have passed once all unofficial ballots were counted. The measure was aimed at a possible hyperscale Amazon project whose future is now unclear. Pataskala voters approved a charter ban on large facilities, and Trenton passed a ban by roughly 80% to 20%, targeting a proposed 18-building Amazon Web Services campus.

Other measures took different forms. In Perry, more than 87% of voters backed rules requiring developers who seek tax breaks to provide financial guarantees to the village. Wilmington voters rejected, by about 80%, four separate rezonings that would have opened rural residential land to light industrial use. In Ashville, voters moved to overturn the village's agreement with developer EdgeConneX, whose campus is already being built.

Around Columbus, NBC4 reports that all five communities with data center questions voted against the projects, with charter bans in Pataskala, Sunbury and Granville and a referendum requirement for large developments in Grove City expected to pass.

The wider picture

Ballotpedia had counted 41 local data center measures in 10 states on the November 3 ballot, including seven in Illinois, four in Maine and three in Kansas, such as a proposed ban in Ottawa, Kansas. Outcomes outside Ohio were not yet confirmed in the sources reviewed for this article.

Ohio already had 125 local moratoriums before election day, according to an Ohio Capital Journal tally cited by Fortune, and the state has more than 200 operating data centers. Researchers quoted by Fortune describe the opposition as bipartisan, and a SurveyUSA poll of Ohio adults conducted with Ohio Northern University found 55% opposed new data center construction in the state, while 22% supported it.

The votes mainly affect local zoning and charters, not state policy. Their effect on specific projects will depend on certified results and possible legal challenges.