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Is this the only U.S. town to vote yes on data centers?

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Is this the only U.S. town to vote yes on data centers?

On Election Day, voters approved more than 40 measures to slow or ban data center growth. But not all Americans decided against data centers.

The majority of voters in Harwood, North Dakota, said "no" to a ballot measure calling for additional steps when the town evaluates, approves, and administers developments like that of data centers, Tech Insider reported. In a town of 845 people, 430 voted, and around 75 percent voted against added restrictions. (As Tech Insider notes, however, that documentation on small towns could be varied — The Washington Post reports that Harwood's population is 845, while other outlets report 940.)

The big project in question is a $3 billion, 1.8-million-square-foot data center right outside Harwood, the Washington Post reports. Data center developer Applied Digital is behind the project.

The vote caused the Post to claim that Harwood is "the only town in the U.S. that said yes to data centers." While the building of a data center itself wasn't on the ballot, Harwood residents indeed voted against further bureaucracy towards them.

Harwood breaks the trend of what happened on Election Day, which Mashable's Rebecca Ruiz said was a clear message: "The AI reckoning is here." Backlash to both AI and data centers had been mounting in 2026, and voters were able to express their discontent last Tuesday. The list of U.S. states that ban data centers could grow in 2027.



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