Voters in at least eight Maine towns approved bans on new data centers Tuesday, including a permanent ban in one and temporary bans in seven.
The lopsided local votes come months after Gov. Janet Mills vetoed a statewide moratorium. They also come weeks before a Legislature with larger Democratic majorities convenes under Gov.-elect Hannah Pingree, a Democrat who has said she would sign a ban.
North Berwick went furthest, with 78% of voters approving a permanent ban on data center development. The other towns passed 180-day bans meant to give them time to weigh more comprehensive regulation.
Support ranged from 70% in Freedom to nearly 82% in Wells. More than 76% backed moratoriums in Eliot and Peru, according to WMTW, and almost 78% did in Brownfield.
The wave of local bans is the latest example of data center backlash that’s risen nationally. Stories about massive data centers driving up the costs of electricity and water elsewhere sparked broad concern among voters.
In most towns, data center moratoriums have been proposed preemptively, often in small towns that are unlikely to ever see large developments. Wiscasset is an exception. The town foiled an attempt to build a data center there in 2025, and two-thirds of voters there supported the moratorium.
In Sabattus, the proposal to ban data centers for 180 days also passed with support from two-thirds of voters. But many residents seemed only mildly interested in the topic outside the polls Tuesday.
“I’ve just been watching it through other towns … with the water and all that stuff,” Republican voter Jeff Plourde, 55, said outside Sabattus’ polling place Tuesday afternoon. “We don’t need it around here.”
Kim Reny, 61, said she voted against the ban, saying she thought data centers were “a good idea.”
Though data centers are broadly unpopular, several voters said they had not heard much discussion of the issue in town. Some voters told The Maine Monitor on Tuesday morning that they were not aware the town would be voting on the issue until they arrived at the polls.
The opposition crosses party lines. The Legislature passed what would have been a first-in-the-nation moratorium on data center projects in April. Mills vetoed that bill to save a data center project in Jay, which later fell through.
Wary of public backlash, developers are sometimes quiet about their plans to build centers until they’re well underway. In Jay, for example, local officials learned of the plan to build one in town only after reporting by the Bangor Daily News.
Environmental groups are already working on bills to regulate data centers statewide in the next legislative session, which begins in December.
Daniel O’Connor is a Report for America corps member who covers rural government as part of the partnership between the Bangor Daily News and The Maine Monitor, with additional support from BDN and Monitor readers.