China may have been the biggest winner November 3rd.
Posted by Leslie Eastman
Big Tech’s ambitions around Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its infrastructure just had the plug pulled.
Voters backed restrictions or rejected pro-development measures in every data-center ballot contest with results available Wednesday except one in Harwood, North Dakota.
The artificial intelligence data center boom hit a roadblock on election night, further complicating the tech industry’s historic expansion plans.
There were 41 local ballot measures in 10 states up for a vote on Tuesday that would place restrictions on the construction of data centers in different ways, according to Ballotpedia.
Voters sided against data centers in each measure except one in Harwood, North Dakota, according to an analysis by Ballotpedia and additional results gathered by CNBC on Wednesday.
The City of Harwood voted against a charter rule amendment that would have required additional review before city approval of industrial developments, including data centers.
🇺🇲 America votes against the data center boom. Local bans pass almost everywhere, Texas elects a governor who ran on a moratorium, and AI infrastructure stocks slip
On Tuesday night the AI build-out lost its first big election. Voters in at least 29 jurisdictions passed bans or… pic.twitter.com/KiEb5IpYau
— The Tectonic (@thetect0nic) November 4, 2026
Local measures often won by wide margins, driven by concerns over electricity costs, water use, noise, and other environmental impacts.
Legal Insurrection readers may recall my post on China turning a legitimate American policy debate into an influence operation. X reported it removed a suspected network of roughly 200,000 inauthentic Chinese accounts, including about 200 that amplified coordinated anti-AI and anti-data-center messaging aimed at US audiences.
It appears that the Chinese were the biggest winners in the November 3rd election.
China helps foment a lot of the controversies and panics here, and it’s something we need to crack down on, hard. One risk though is that legitimate concerns will get dismissed as “helping China.”
“China is secretly fueling America’s data center rage” https://t.co/o3fItVr6s7
— Phineas Fahrquar (@irishspy) August 28, 2026
But I digress.
In fact, positions on data centers appear to have played an important role in who people chose for congressional representation.
The national backlash to data centers has become a major political issue. Residents in Republican and Democratic cities alike have pushed back on tech companies’ plans to aggressively build data centers to power their artificial intelligence platforms. Local and national activists have raised concerns about energy costs, pollution, water use, noise, and conversion of farmland and other open spaces.
According to an NBC exit poll, 56% of voters said AI and data centers played a “crucial or major factor” in their vote for Congress.
In some communities, including 21 municipalities in Ohio, residents turned to local ballot measures or referendums in an effort to block the construction of proposed data centers. In nearly every result so far, voters overwhelmingly backed new restrictions or declined to approve measures that affirmed the buildout of such facilities.
Overall, the measures varied from outright bans on data center construction to hard limits on regional resources. These restrictions passed with an average of 70% support.
The measures consisted of varied language involving data center construction. Some asked about an outright ban. Some asked for a 180-day moratorium. Others asked about imposing technical limitations, such as on a site’s electricity or water usage. A ballot measure in Maine asked, “Shall an ordinance entitled, ‘An Ordinance to Establish a Retroactive Moratorium on Data Centers’ be enacted?”
An Ohio measure asked, “Shall the resolution enacting approval of a development and supply agreement term summary with EdgeConneX be approved?” And a Florida ballot asked, “Should the City Charter prohibit new data centers within the City?” The winning answers, respectively, were: Yes, No, and Yes. These all count as votes to restrict data center development.
The measure with the highest proportion voting to restrict was in Morgan County, Illinois, with 88.3% of the 10,663 votes cast stopping data center development. The closest vote was in Sprigg Township, Adams County, Ohio, with 52.6% voting to restrict construction of data centers.
On average, the pro-restriction vote percentage was over 70%.
Voters have sent Big Tech a clear message: Address the costs imposed on local communities before expecting a welcome mat for the next server farm.
🚨Report: 76% said they would oppose the construction of a data center in their community
56% of voters said AI and data centers were crucial or a major factor in their vote pic.twitter.com/hrxmQSR7Zx
— The Calvin Coolidge Project (@TheCalvinCooli1) November 4, 2026
But protecting our electricity bills, water supplies, and quality of life should not mean surrendering America’s technological future to China. Hopefully, American innovators can meet those concerns with better engineering and stronger attention to local community needs and concerns.
