5NOV

Voters side against data centres in 40 of 41 votes

1 min read

00:50UTC

Local voters rejected 40 of 41 data-centre measures on 3 November; only Harwood, North Dakota approved one, CNBC reported.

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Key takeaway

Voters sided against data centres in 40 of 41 local measures; Harwood was the exception.

Voters sided against data centres in 40 of 41 local ballot measures on 3 November, CNBC reported⁠¹. Most would have restricted building them. The exception was Harwood, North Dakota, where voters rejected an added review of industrial projects such as data centres.

The measures were local questions, decided town by town, rather than a single state or national vote. A Gallup poll in May found 71% of Americans opposed to a data centre in their area.

Deep Analysis

In plain English

Data centres are large buildings full of computers that run online services and artificial intelligence. They use a lot of electricity and often water for cooling. In many US towns, building one needs local approval, and some places put the question to a public vote. On 3 November voters sided against data centres in 40 of 41 such votes.

Deep Analysis

Root Causes

Data-centre projects need local approvals for land, power connections and water, which gives towns and counties a direct say. Where those approvals go to a public vote, residents rather than state officials decide.

Opposition has been building nationally: a Gallup poll in May found most Americans opposed to a data centre in their own area.

What could happen next?

Risk
Local ballot defeats may push data-centre developers towards sites where approval does not go to a public vote.

Sources:CNBC

Mentions:CNBC →Harwood →Gallup →North Dakota →

First Reported In

Update #23 · Democrats take the Senate and the House

CNBC· 5 Nov 2026

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Written with AI from Lowdown's published reporting. Not individually reviewed by an editor. Editorial standards.