Voters in 18 Ohio municipalities and townships will determine the future of data centers in their communities on Election Day, November 3. These local decisions follow a statewide effort to ban data centers that draw significant amounts of energy.
Nine of these local petitions — in Conneaut, Defiance, Granville, Oregon, Pataskala, Piqua, Sunbury, Trenton, and Upper Sandusky — mirror a broader push by the group Conserve Ohio to ban data centers consuming over 25 megawatts of energy per month. Conserve Ohio aims for a statewide petition to reach the 2027 ballot, having missed an earlier signature deadline in July, according to a statement from the organization. "Conserve Ohio is continuing to organize with many more communities across Ohio to enact local data center bans and to create local government structures that are by the people and for the people," the group said in a Tuesday statement.
The deadline for charter amendment petitions to make the November 3 ballot passed on September 4. In situations where the next regular election is less than 60 days or more than 120 days away, special elections are held instead for petitions filed by registered voters.
Ohio currently hosts the fourth-most operational data centers in the United States, based on an April analysis by Pew Research Center. Tech giants and data center developers have plans to build dozens more across the state. Fourteen of the 18 communities with petitions filed for the upcoming election have already received formal proposals for new data center projects.
Public sentiment suggests widespread opposition to new data center construction. A Gallup poll in May indicated that over 70% of Americans oppose such development in their areas, while a Bowling Green State University poll found similar support among Ohioans for a data center moratorium. Opponents frequently cite concerns about rising utility bills, environmental impacts, and the implications of artificial intelligence.
In Piqua, resident Alisha Lange became politically involved in 2023 after a city-approved battery plant reportedly caused long-term health issues for her and others nearby. Following Meta's announcement of a planned data center in Piqua that would require approximately 1,400 megawatts of power, Lange gathered signatures for petitions to recall Piqua's mayor and two city commissioners. She also filed two additional petitions on Monday to modify the city's recall signature requirements to align with state law and to revoke a city agreement to power the data center. Lange noted that "people are upset" when she is collecting signatures, describing a sense of community among those concerned about these projects.
Other communities are taking different approaches. Urbana voters will consider a charter amendment to ban data centers that draw over 7.5 megawatts of power. Hubbard stands as the only Ohio city that will vote on a full data center ban this November.
In Pleasant Township, Jen Belt, who lives near a proposed data center in Grove City, was involved in a petition drive to subject any new heavy industrial project in Grove City to a citywide vote. Belt signed the statewide Conserve Ohio petition but noted that Grove City organizers chose not to advocate for a local data center ban due to fears of litigation. She expressed that "people are losing their trust in their governments" over how such large projects are approved. Quintin Koger Kidd, an IT professional who helped draft a local ordinance in Wilmington, views data centers as a land use issue rather than advocating for an outright ban. He stated, "Data centers provide a useful service, but they have impacts on our community. How do we minimize the negative impacts on our community while accruing the benefits to our community?"
Legal battles have also influenced which measures will appear on ballots. A referendum against a proposed data center in Ashville and a 25-megawatt data center ban in Trenton will be on the general election ballot after court challenges. Three data center-related petitions in Sidney are likely to result in a special election after the Ohio Supreme Court ruled that the city clerk illegally blocked them.
In Wilmington, residents proposed a 33-page zoning ordinance after Amazon Web Services announced plans for a $4 billion data center adjacent to a local subdivision. Residents have filed multiple federal lawsuits over the city’s handling of the project. Four referendums on Wilmington's November ballot aim to overturn zoning ordinances passed by the city. The Clinton County Board of Elections rejected a petition from Wilmington residents to place their proposed zoning ordinance on the ballot, asserting it would create new avenues for lawsuits beyond the city's municipal authority. Koger Kidd stated that the disputed clause merely restates existing state and local law and plans to circulate new petitions without the clause if the court rules against residents in their ongoing lawsuit challenging the board of elections' decision.
Two Adams County townships located along the Ohio River will also vote on zoning plans designed to preserve their "rural and agricultural character" in response to a potential data center that could use more than 20 times the power of the county itself.
