President Donald Trump wasn’t on the ballot this midterm election season, but on some tickets, an industry he wholeheartedly supports was: Ballot measures in more than 30 districts across the country asked voters to weigh in on AI data center development.

Voters overwhelmingly chose to ban or pause local data center development across 38 out of 41 ballot measures. (The other three measures aren’t yet reporting results, according to Ballotpedia.)

The ballot questions varied, in some instances asking voters to prohibit data centers in their cities, and in others, asking them to allow data center development, or even to uphold specific data center deals. 

Not all results are yet in. But it’s still clear that no matter the framing, data centers lost by landslides.

In Edgewater, Florida, more than 77% of voters approved a ballot initiative to amend the city charter in order to “prohibit the approval, construction, expansion, or operation of new data centers.” 

In Ashville, Ohio, a ballot referendum asked voters to maintain the village’s deal with EdgeConneX for two data centers and on-site natural gas across nearly 200 acres. Residents struck it down with more than 81% of the vote. 

Grove City, Ohio, saw one of the closest races, but it’s still looking bad for data centers. It looks like voters there still chose to rein in data center development—by requiring public approval for certain projects—with 55% of the vote. 

In 28 of the 38 ballot measures for which Ballotpedia is reporting results, support for banning or pausing data center development hit 70% or more.

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