Good Jobs First tracks 11 active state moratorium bills as of mid-May 2026. Maine's LD 307 (vetoed), Vermont's S.205 (through July 2030), and Oklahoma's bill (through November 2029) are among the most advanced. A wave of five local jurisdiction votes occurred in a single week in mid-May.Source: Good Jobs First / Lowdown

Why did Governor Mills veto the Maine data centre moratorium?

Mills cited the $550 million Androscoggin Mill redevelopment in Jay as the reason she could not sign LD 307, arguing the moratorium would block economically significant development projects the state needs.Source: Lowdown

Did Maine's data centre moratorium pass?

Maine's legislature passed LD 307 on 22 April 2026, but Governor Janet Mills vetoed it on 24 April. The Maine House attempted an override on 29 April but fell short 72-65, below the two-thirds threshold needed. Mills instead created a Data Center Advisory Council by executive order.Source: Lowdown

Background

Maine is a small New England state of approximately 1.4 million residents notable in US elections for being one of only two states (alongside Nebraska) that allocates its Electoral College votes by congressional district rather than winner-take-all. Its 2nd Congressional District — rural, northern, voted Trump in 2016, 2020, and 2024 — is a bellwether for working-class rural sentiment in the northeast. Senators Angus King (Independent) and Susan Collins (Republican) frequently hold decisive votes on close legislation: Collins is one of the Senate's most closely watched moderates.

Maine's ranked-choice voting system, adopted in 2016 for federal races, has survived multiple legal challenges and makes it a case study in alternative electoral mechanics that other states have considered.

Maine's legislature passed LD 307, the first US statewide moratorium on large data centre development, on 22 April 2026. Governor Janet Mills vetoed the bill on 24 April 2026, and the Maine House failed to override on 29 April by a 72-65 vote, short of the two-thirds threshold required. Hours after the override failed, Mills signed an executive order creating the Maine Data Center Advisory Council, citing the $550 million Androscoggin Mill redevelopment in Jay as the reason she could not sign the moratorium bill.

Despite the veto, Maine's attempt set a national template. By mid-May 2026, the moratorium wave had reached five concurrent US jurisdiction votes in a single week, including Camden County Georgia, Normal Illinois, Seattle, Denver, and Minneapolis. Good Jobs First tracks 11 active state bills and dozens of enacted local pauses.

Maine was one of the states targeted by the Department of Justice's nationwide voter-roll dragnet, and one of the first to see the suit thrown out. Chief US District Judge Lance E. Walker dismissed the DOJ's Maine case as legally underdeveloped, ruling that states are 'primary regulators and administrators of elections for federal office' . The Maine dismissal landed alongside Wisconsin's, part of a pattern in which the DOJ has progressively dropped its National Voter Registration Act and Help America Vote Act claims and narrowed its remaining cases to a single 66-year-old statute, the Civil Rights Act of 1960.

The DOJ did not let the Maine loss stand: by mid-June it had appealed all eight of the voter-data dismissals it had lost, including Maine's, alongside California, Oregon, Michigan, Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Arizona, and Wisconsin . Maine's case has not yet had an appellate ruling; the 6th Circuit heard Michigan's appeal on 13 May and the 9th Circuit heard Oregon's on 19 May, giving early signals of how Maine's own appeal might fare.