The Ohio Data Center Ban Petition: what it does, who started it, where to sign

What the amendment actually does

The amendment would add a new Section 36a to Article II of the Ohio Constitution, prohibiting the construction of any data center used for digital data processing with an aggregate monthly demand or peak load greater than 25 megawatts, regardless of energy source. Maine adopted a similar 20-megawatt threshold in its 18-month moratorium; the Ohio amendment is permanent unless repealed by voters.

Twenty-five megawatts is the practical line where a data center crosses from being a manageable industrial customer into a hyperscale facility whose water and power demand exceeds typical municipal capacity. Most of the projects on this site — Project Mila (250 MW), Bristolville 25, Project Galaxy, Cosgray Road, PORTS Technology Campus (10 GW) — would all be banned under the proposed amendment. According to McKinsey & Company, ten years ago, a 30-megawatt data center was considered large; today, a single hyperscale facility commonly draws 100–500 megawatts.

The amendment’s lead drafter, attorney Austin Baurichter of Georgetown (Brown County), has stated that the amendment “is not rear-view-mirror looking” — meaning it likely would not retroactively shut down projects already under construction at the moment of voter approval. But it would stop further hyperscale buildout in Ohio, including Phase 2 of all current projects.

The five organizers

The petition was filed by five southwest Ohio residents who together formed Ohio Residents for Responsible Development (ORRD), a 100% volunteer coalition:

• Andrew Gula — Clermont County, organizer; describes himself as a left-leaning independent working alongside “proud Trumpers” in cross-partisan organizing.
• Jessica Baker — Clermont County. Has said: “We started realizing that it’s not going to benefit the community. The tax abatements, the tax exemptions, the TIFs, the water consumption, the power consumption. We’re screaming at every legislator that we can talk to our concerns, and we feel like nobody’s listening, so we decided that we would just take it into our own hands.”
• Nikki Gerber — Adams County. At the Ohio Ballot Board meeting on April 3, 2026: “It’s time to conserve Ohio and not let data centers take away all the natural resources that we are plentiful of so we have life for generations to come.”
• Austin Baurichter — Attorney based in Georgetown (Brown County), co-wrote the petition. After AG certification: “It’s on like Donkey Kong. As far as we’re concerned right now, the thing that we were most concerned with, we’re passed through that. So we’re stoked and ready to roll it out.”
• Emily Harper — Has said local data center projects have been “cloaked in secrecy,” which prompted the amendment effort.

ORRD has since expanded with volunteers in 70+ Ohio counties. Linda Moodie, a manufacturing engineer from Franklin (Warren County), has held signature rallies in Miamisburg, Centerville, and Springboro. Coordination of signing events runs through Conserve Ohio at conserveohio.com.

Timeline: how we got here

• September 2025 — Jerome Township (Union County) becomes the first Ohio local government to enact a data-center moratorium. Trustee Wezlynn Davis (R) describes residents as “footing the bill for a mega-corporation.”
• Late 2025 / Early 2026 — Adams and Brown County residents begin drafting amendment language. Roughly 1,800 signatures gathered in eight days as the initial 1,000-signature qualifying threshold.
• March 16, 2026 — Initiative submitted to the Ohio Attorney General’s office.
• March 26, 2026 — AG Dave Yost certifies the petition title and summary. Yost included a notable disclaimer: “My certification of the title and summary…should not be construed as an affirmation of the enforceability and constitutionality of the proposed amendment.”
• April 3, 2026 — Ohio Ballot Board votes unanimously to certify the amendment as a single-issue ballot measure. (Splitting it into multiple measures would have doubled the signature requirement.) Acting chairwoman Kimberly Burns presided as Secretary of State Frank LaRose was deployed with the Ohio Army National Guard.
• July 1, 2026 — Signature deadline. 413,488 valid signatures from at least 44 of 88 counties required.
• November 3, 2026 — If the amendment qualifies, voters decide.

The 413,488-signature math

Ohio law requires citizen-initiated constitutional amendments to gather signatures equal to 10% of the votes cast in the last gubernatorial election. With Ohio's 2022 governor race totals, that works out to 413,488 valid signatures. The signatures must come from at least 44 of Ohio’s 88 counties, with each of those 44 counties contributing at least 5% of votes cast there in the last gubernatorial race.

The window is roughly three months — from April 3 (Ballot Board certification) to July 1 (filing deadline). For comparison, recent Ohio constitutional amendments that succeeded (Issue 1 in 2023 on abortion, Issue 2 in 2023 on cannabis) typically operated with paid signature gatherers and multi-million-dollar budgets. The data-center amendment is operating with volunteers only.

Ohio is one of 18 states that allow citizens to initiate constitutional amendments. A simple majority vote is required for voter approval in November.

Where to sign — find an event in your county

The official signing-event directory is maintained at conserveohio.com/where-can-i-go-to-sign. Events are hosted by ORRD volunteers in each county, typically at libraries, community centers, farmers markets, courthouses, and public events. Volunteers also collect signatures door-to-door in some counties.

To sign, you must be a registered Ohio voter. Bring your Ohio driver’s license or state ID. You can sign for petitions circulating in your county only.

If no event is listed for your county, the volunteer-led Coalition Against Data Centers in South Ohio Facebook group (administrator: Jay Kidd) coordinates rides and connects volunteers across counties.

Who’s opposing the amendment

The Data Center Coalition, an industry trade group, is the most visible opposition. Spokesperson Dan Diorio told The State of Ohio: “When communities decide to go forward with a moratorium, it effectively sends a very clear message that that is not going to be a predictable place for data center development.”

The Ohio Chamber of Commerce Research Foundation released a study claiming the industry contributed more than $1 billion in state and local tax revenue in 2024 (though only $260 million was a direct contribution). The Chamber argues that ending the sales tax exemption would result in $500 million less revenue by 2030.

Gov. Mike DeWine overruled state legislators who tried to end the data-center sales tax exemption in the 2026-2027 biennial budget, citing the economic benefits of the industry.

If the amendment qualifies for the ballot, the campaign will likely face millions in opposition spending from data-center operators (Amazon, Google, Microsoft, Meta), trade unions worried about construction jobs, and business stakeholders.

How the amendment connects to other Ohio bills

The amendment isn’t the only legislative response to the data-center buildout. Several bills are working through the Ohio General Assembly in parallel:

• HB 695 (Bird R-New Richmond + Stewart R-Ashville) — bans NDAs between local officials and data-center developers, with $1,000 fines per violation. Triggered by the Brown County / Mt. Orab case where all village officials signed NDAs.
• HB 706 (Thomas R-Jefferson + Rader D-Lakewood) — bipartisan bill extending the AEP Ohio 85% data-center tariff statewide. Bans utilities from recovering data-center costs from other customers.
• HB 710 (Demetriou R-Bainbridge + Workman R-Rootstown) — bans data-center incentives and eminent domain for data-center projects.
• HB 646 — passed the Ohio House unanimously March 18, 2026; creates a 13-member Data Center Study Commission.
• SB 374 (Smith D-Euclid + Blessing R-Hamilton) — ends the sales-tax exemption for data centers.

The amendment is the most aggressive of these — the only one that bans new construction outright. The bills above narrow the cost-shifting and disclosure problems but do not stop hyperscale buildout. Voters who sign the amendment can also call their state representatives to push for the bills.

What the amendment does NOT do

The amendment is a single-issue measure focused on construction. It does not:

• Apply to data centers under 25 MW (small colocation, edge facilities, university research data centers).
• Shut down operating data centers built before passage.
• Apply to projects with a ground-broken construction permit at the moment of passage (per Baurichter’s reading of Ohio law).
• Address electricity-rate cost shifting (HB 706 covers that).
• Address NDA secrecy (HB 695 covers that).
• Create new water-use rules (Ohio EPA NPDES covers that).

The amendment is the structural fix — it changes Ohio’s data-center growth model permanently. The bills are the procedural fixes for projects already in motion.

The other 11 states with similar legislation

According to Ohio Capital Journal reporting, lawmakers in at least 11 states have introduced legislation that would temporarily ban data centers: Georgia, Maryland, Michigan, New Hampshire, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, South Dakota, Vermont, Virginia, and Wisconsin. Maine has already enacted an 18-month moratorium with a 20-megawatt threshold. Ohio would be the first state to enact a permanent ban via constitutional amendment if voters approve it.

How to help if you can’t sign

You can support the amendment effort even if you can’t sign yourself:

• Volunteer to circulate petitions in your county. Volunteers must be Ohio residents at least 18 years old. Conserve Ohio provides training and the official petition forms.
• Donate to ORRD’s legal and printing costs through Conserve Ohio’s donation page.
• Share signing events on Facebook in county-specific groups. Reach is the constraint, not interest.
• Write to local newspapers — letters to the editor in the Cincinnati Enquirer, Cleveland Plain Dealer, Columbus Dispatch, Akron Beacon Journal, Toledo Blade, and Dayton Daily News drive turnout for in-county signing events.
• Contact your state legislator about HB 695, HB 706, HB 710, HB 646, and SB 374 — the parallel bills.

• Ballotpedia — Ohio Prohibition of Data Center Construction Amendment (2026)
• Ohio Capital Journal — Data center ban on the Ohio ballot? (April 3, 2026)
• Ohio Statehouse News Bureau — Ballot Board certification (April 3, 2026)
• The Post (Athens) — Ohioans lead petition to prevent data center growth
• Ohio CPA Society — Rural Ohioans seek to ban data centers (March 20, 2026)
• Conserve Ohio — conserveohio.com / signing event directory
• Ohio Attorney General — Yost certification, March 26, 2026