The Harwood data center vote stood out on Tuesday as the only instance in the country where a ballot proposition related to data centers succeeded. In a town of roughly 940 people about 10 miles from Fargo, North Dakota, residents rejected a measure that would have required public hearings before large projects like AI data centers could be built. The outcome was decisive: 325 voted against the proposition and 105 voted for it, according to the North Dakota Secretary of State’s office.
Across the United States, voters weighed in on 45 data-center-related propositions, and all but Harwood’s landed on the anti-data-center side, according to Redbud Consulting, a ballot tracking firm. The results underscore the widespread skepticism that has greeted major developers—including SpaceX, Microsoft, Google, Amazon, and OpenAI—as they seek sites for the power-hungry facilities that support artificial intelligence products. Concerns about environmental impact, electricity bills, water supply, and unease with AI itself have fueled resistance at town halls and city councils.
A Local Fight Over Future Development
In Harwood, the issue is far from abstract. A $3 billion AI data center, equal in size to 17 football fields, is under construction in the community’s backyard. The company building it, Applied Digital, hopes to employ 200 people—about 20% of the town’s population. The project is set to be completed next year and would not have been affected by the proposition, which applied only to future construction projects that met a scale threshold. A new gas station would not have qualified, but a large data center would have been subject to independent assessments and mandatory public hearings.
Mike Swartz, a 47-year-old resident who advocated for the proposition, said the measure was necessary because residents were caught off guard by how quickly the current data center was approved. He said many in town did not even know what the project was or meant, yet only 21 days passed from the time it was announced to the start of construction. Another resident, 59-year-old Mark Coolidge, who voted for the measure, described the situation as frustrating.
Mayor Blake Hankey said he did not support the proposition. He argued that its language was imprecise and that some stipulations would have been financially burdensome for a city of Harwood’s size. He also said the amendment to the home rule charter was not strictly aimed at data centers but at any kind of business coming to town, and that the vote was not a referendum on data centers or a moratorium.
Speed, Secrecy, and a Non-Disclosure Agreement
Hankey said he signed a non-disclosure agreement with Applied Digital and described the decision as one he and the city council had to make quickly, lest neighboring Fargo secure the contract first. He said he does not regret signing the NDA, adding that without it the data center would almost certainly be in Fargo now, without any sales tax or property tax for Harwood. Applied Digital did not respond to a request for comment on Wednesday.
Swartz and Coolidge said voters ultimately rejected the measure in part because residents disagreed over whether it would also apply to smaller buildings and businesses, rather than just large ones. Coolidge attributed the outcome to financial interests, saying the company cares little about residents. Swartz framed the question as one of local autonomy, asking whether residents have any say in what they want for a community some have spent decades calling home.
The Harwood result stands apart from a national pattern of rejection. As AI developers continue to seek new sites, the town’s vote offers a rare case of a community choosing to limit additional hurdles for large-scale construction—even as the data center already rising nearby remains a source of contention for some residents.