MARIETTA, Ohio — Washington County volunteers with Conserve Ohio collected more than 800 signatures during early voting and on Election Day for a proposed statewide constitutional amendment that would ban large-scale data centers in Ohio, according to a report by Holly Kellums published on Medium’s MashFocus. Coordinator Lynn Cady told Kellums the county has already passed its 5 percent signature threshold and is moving toward 10 percent.
The proposed amendment would prohibit construction of data centers with an aggregate monthly demand or peak load greater than 25 megawatts, according to the MashFocus report. Organizers aim to place the measure on the November 2027 ballot. To qualify, they need valid signatures equal to 10 percent of the votes cast for governor in the most recent gubernatorial election, gathered at required levels in at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, the report said.
Statewide, the campaign has collected more than 150,000 signatures across all 88 counties in recent updates from the group, according to the MashFocus report. Conserve Ohio missed the July 1 deadline for the 2026 ballot but kept collecting, and signatures already gathered do not expire if the petitions are not submitted, the report said. The Ohio Ballot Board approved the amendment’s language earlier this year.
The signature drive has a local edge in Washington County, where large data center proposals continue to move, including activity in Waterford Township, according to the MashFocus report. WTAP has also reported a second data center proposed in Waterford Township. The statewide petition effort began as a grassroots campaign — the Scioto Post reported in July that Conserve Ohio volunteers were collecting signatures at community events across southern Ohio, with a statewide goal well above the legal minimum to survive signature challenges.
Conserve Ohio describes itself as a grassroots group focused on giving power back to the people of Ohio, according to the Scioto Post’s reporting. Its concerns, as volunteers have described them in that reporting, center on the scale of proposed projects — many over 1,000 megawatts — and on what supporters call a lack of transparency when projects are negotiated locally.
What happens next: volunteers, including Cady in Washington County, continue collecting signatures toward the 2027 ballot, with the group’s full amendment text and signing locations posted at conserveohio.com, according to the MashFocus report. The drive must clear the statewide signature and county-distribution requirements before the amendment can be certified for the ballot.
Photo: Bwsmith84, CC BY