Ohio activists spent the spring of 2026 trying to collect 413,488 valid signatures to qualify a statewide ballot measure that would ban data centers requiring 25 megawatts or more.1 They fell short. By June 22, 2026, the campaign organized as Conserve Ohio had gathered roughly 85,000 signatures and announced it would not file by the July 1 deadline, retargeting the measure for 2027 rather than the 2026 ballot (Scioto Post). [Updated June 2026] The miss does not blunt the broader tactical shift it belongs to: after governors in Maine and South Dakota blocked or diluted legislative moratoriums, opponents of data center expansion have been bypassing statehouses and taking their case directly to voters.1
The Legislative Moratorium Track Keeps Hitting Walls
Maine Governor Janet Mills vetoed ME LD 307, a bill that would have paused data center construction until November 2027.1 Mills had previously indicated a moratorium would be “appropriate,” but local economic pressure in the former paper mill region carried the day. South Dakota passed SB 135 to shift moratorium authority from the state to local governments rather than imposing a statewide ban.1
Virginia, which hosts more than 550 data centers,1 saw 27 bills introduced in 2025 but only one signed into law, a rate classification review.2 Governor Glenn Youngkin vetoed a separate bill that would have required sound and water impact assessments.2 The pattern is consistent across the country: 238 data center bills were considered across all 50 states in 2025,2 with more than 40 enacted in 21 states. Most addressed energy rates, tax incentives, or water use rather than construction pauses.2
The Ballot Measure Pivot
Ohio’s proposed 25MW threshold is significant because it would apply to AI training and inference facilities while sparing smaller colocation and enterprise sites. Qualifying is hard by design: the 413,488 figure is 10% of the last gubernatorial vote, and Ohio also requires signatures from at least 44 of its 88 counties.1 [Updated June 2026] Conserve Ohio missed the July 1, 2026 deadline with about 85,000 signatures in hand, having added some 16,500 in the final week, and is now collecting toward a 2027 submission. Organizers point out that the signatures already banked do not expire (Scioto Post).
The tactic is spreading. Port Washington, Wisconsin voters approved a measure requiring voter approval for data center tax incentives by a 66% margin.1 Janesville, Wisconsin is considering a similar threshold for projects over $450 million.1 In Frederick County, Maryland, activists verified enough signatures to force a referendum overturning approval of 2,600 acres for data center development; the County Council must now choose between the November ballot or a special election.1 Boulder City, Nevada and Monterey Park, California1 will vote on construction bans this fall, and Monterey Park’s measure has already chilled development interest.1
The underlying sentiment is not limited to activists. A Heatmap poll found that only 44% of Americans would welcome a data center nearby, making the facilities less popular than gas plants, wind farms, battery storage, or nuclear plants.3 A June 2026 Data for Progress survey of 1,090 likely voters put the appetite for a pause in sharper terms: 63% backed pausing AI data center construction for at least a year, including 58% of Republicans, 66% of independents, and 67% of Democrats (Data for Progress). [Updated June 2026] A pause polling above 60% across the partisan spectrum is the kind of number that survives a contested ballot campaign, which is what makes the citizen-initiative route credible even after a missed deadline.
The Electricity Bill Is Doing the Organizing
The polling tracks a figure voters can read off their own statements. In PJM Interconnection, the grid operator covering 13 states from Virginia to Ohio, the annual capacity auction that pays generators to stay available cleared at $28.92 per megawatt-day for the 2024/25 delivery year, then jumped to $269.92 for 2025/26 and $329.17 for 2026/27, the cap that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved (IEEFA). IEEFA attributes roughly 63% of the 2025/26 jump to data center demand, about $9.3 billion that PJM recovers from ratepayers across its footprint.
That cost is not abstract by the time it reaches a household. IEEFA’s regional breakdown puts the capacity-driven share of monthly residential bills at roughly $16 in Ohio and about $18 in western Maryland, with larger swings elsewhere in the Mid-Atlantic. The line from a 1.65 million square foot training campus to a number on a power bill is exactly what turns a sleepy zoning hearing into a recall election. In Festus, Missouri, voters removed city council members who had backed data centers over resident objections; in Ypsilanti Township, Michigan, officials moved to withhold water and sewer service from a proposed site (Fortune). [Updated June 2026]
The academic read is that the fight is early, not late. A February 2026 Belfer Center report led by Harvard Kennedy School’s Rachel Mural counted more than 1,000 pending data center proposals nationwide and argued that thin regulation feeds the backlash rather than cooling it, by pushing rate and reliability risk onto the public (Belfer Center). For the carbon-and-power audit of US hyperscale data centers, the rate story is the mirror image of the emissions story: the same load growth that strains the grid shows up as both tons of CO2 and dollars on a bill.
Why Ballot Measures Are Harder to Stop Than Bills
Twenty-three states allow citizen-initiated ballot measures,1 which means no governor’s veto is possible. Legislators face less political risk voting to place a measure on the ballot than voting to ban an industry outright. Ballot measures bypass the lobbying infrastructure that typically kills moratoriums in committee or through gubernatorial action.
What This Means for AI Infrastructure Planning
Virginia and Ohio rank among the top six states for data center concentration, with Virginia hosting more than 550 sites and Ohio roughly 200.1 AEP Ohio forecasts demand growing from 600MW in 2024 to 5GW by 2030,4 but the state’s pipeline has already been halved from 30GW to 13GW after policy shifts and local opposition.4 That contraction includes Lordstown’s unanimous village council vote in November 2025 to ban all data centers,4 a response to a proposed $3.6 billion, 1.65 million square foot facility.4 Some of that displaced demand is now chasing firmer, lower-controversy power, which is part of why the economics of options like geothermal procurement for data centers are shifting.
If Ohio’s statewide measure qualifies and passes, it becomes a template for the other 22 citizen-initiative states. Hyperscaler siting risk is shifting from scattered NIMBY fights to potential statewide bans enacted through direct democracy.
What to Watch
The July 1, 2026 deadline came and went without an Ohio filing, so the statewide ban is now a 2027 question rather than a 2026 one. [Updated June 2026] The November 2026 ballots still carry the local fights: construction-ban votes in Boulder City, Nevada and Monterey Park, California, the tax-incentive measures in Wisconsin, and the Frederick County, Maryland referendum. The thing to watch is whether campaigns that miss a statehouse or a deadline simply bank their signatures and return, the way Conserve Ohio is doing. The 2026 legislative sessions will also test whether other states copy South Dakota’s model of devolving authority to localities instead of imposing statewide rules.
Frequently Asked Questions
How does Lordstown’s existing ban differ from the proposed statewide measure?
Lordstown’s village council unanimously banned all data center proposals regardless of size, a direct response to a specific $3.6 billion Bristolville 25 Developer project with reported Foxconn and Stargate ties. The statewide measure would only restrict facilities drawing 25MW or more, leaving smaller sites untouched, and would cover all of Ohio rather than a single municipality.
Are any states moving in the opposite direction and actively recruiting data centers?
Rural Western states and Republican-leaning states including Arizona, Texas, Nevada, and Georgia are competing for data center investment through tax incentives and streamlined permitting. This creates a growing geographic split: states with heavy existing concentrations face community pushback while others roll out welcome mats to capture displaced demand.
What share of the 238 state bills in 2025 addressed water versus energy?
Of the 238 bills, 126 focused on energy policy, 75 on tax incentives, and 39 specifically targeted water consumption. In drought-prone regions, water use has become a flashpoint independent of electricity demand, adding a resource-constraint dimension that pure power-grid discussions miss.
What kinds of facilities fall below the 25MW threshold the Ohio measure targets?
Enterprise colocation sites, edge computing nodes, and mid-tier cloud on-ramps typically draw well under 25MW. The threshold is calibrated to catch hyperscale AI training and inference clusters, facilities built by the largest cloud providers that routinely require hundreds of megawatts each, while sparing the long tail of smaller operators.
