Voters in dozens of local jurisdictions back bans and restrictions on data centers

Voters in more than two dozen local elections across the country supported bans or restrictions on data centers on Tuesday. 

In Joliet Township, Illinois, nearly 80% of voters voted to restrict data centers, as did more than 75% of voters in Hubbard, Ohio, the Washington Post reported. 

More than 60% of voters in Janesville, Wisconsin, supported a measure that requires local officials to get voter approval on future changes to an abandoned General Motors site, where a data center had been proposed. 

Gina Hinojosa, who beat incumbent Greg Abbott in Texas' governor race, champions a moratorium on new data center projects and advocates for tougher regulations that would impose severe protections for the environment and ratepayers. 

Seven in ten Americans, including a majority of Republicans, oppose new data center construction in their communities, according to a Washington Post-ABC News-Ipsos poll last month.