Voters in Defiance, Oregon and Upper Sandusky will decide on November 3 whether to ban large data centers in their communities, as northwest Ohio joins a statewide vote on the facilities. The three cities are among 11 Ohio municipalities with data center bans on the November ballot, and among 18 Ohio municipalities voting on data center measures of some kind, according to a count by Ballotpedia reported on October 21.
That total is the most of any state in the country, according to the Ballotpedia count, with Illinois next at seven measures in November. Most of the Ohio measures are bans on new construction. Others would set new zoning rules, require developers to provide financial guarantees, or spell out how local officials can negotiate with developers.
In Defiance, a city of about 17,000 people in northwest Ohio, no company has announced plans for a data center, according to Reuters reporting on the community. Residents there spent months gathering signatures for the November 3 ballot measure after learning the county economic development group had fielded inquiries from tech companies, and city officials announced a six-month moratorium on new project approvals.
The Defiance, Oregon and Upper Sandusky measures are among ten Ohio ban proposals that would prohibit data centers using more than 25 megawatts of electricity. A separate measure in Urbana, in west-central Ohio, would set a stricter limit, banning all data centers except those using less than 7.5 megawatts. The other Ohio communities voting on bans are Hubbard, Sunbury, Pataskala, Piqua, Granville, Conneaut and Trenton.
Concerns raised in Defiance and other communities include the effect of large facilities on farmland, electricity demand and water use. Reuters reported that concern in Defiance grew this summer after state tax records showed Ohio had forgone more than $2 billion in sales-tax revenue through data center incentives in 2024 and 2025. An August 31 poll from Bowling Green State University found 71 percent of Ohioans would support a temporary ban on new data center construction, according to the same reporting.
The local votes are happening after a proposed statewide constitutional amendment to ban construction of large data centers did not make the November ballot this year. The group Conserve Ohio is collecting signatures to put a similar amendment on the ballot in 2027, one that would ban data centers using more than 25 megawatts of energy. The group says its goal is 413,000 signatures and that it has collected around 140,000, according to its website.
For voters in Defiance, Oregon and Upper Sandusky, the decision on November 3 is local and direct: whether a large data center can be built inside city limits at all. Seven other Ohio municipalities will vote on narrower rules rather than bans, including measures on zoning, voter approval for large developments and financial guarantees from developers seeking tax incentives. Results in the northwest Ohio cities will be counted with the rest of the November 3 general election returns.