41 data center-related bills put to vote; 28 face development restrictions

Voters across 10 U.S. states head to the polls on November 3 to decide 41 local ballot measures concerning data center development, with 28 measures seeking to restrict construction and 13 aimed at promoting it, according to Ballotpedia. Ohio accounts for the bulk of the measures with 21, while the remaining measures span other states' local jurisdictions. Restrictive measures include outright construction bans and permitting moratoriums, while pro-development measures involve zoning changes to permit data center construction, meaning the slate cannot be characterized as uniformly anti-data center. Ballotpedia tallies 50 data center-related measures across 13 states for the full year: 41 on the November 3 ballot, 6 already decided, and 3 scheduled for later votes. The outcome matters for the data center buildout pipeline underpinning AI and cloud infrastructure demand, as local land-use approvals remain a key gating factor for new capacity. Watch the Ohio results in particular, given the state's concentration of measures, as a signal of whether grassroots restrictions are gaining traction against hyperscale development.