At least five recall efforts targeted officials over their support for data centers since 2022. Organizers in Augusta Township, Michigan, are trying to recall seven officials, including the town clerk and trustees, after their board voted to rezone land from agricultural to industrial for a future data center site. Last month, a group trying to boot the mayor in Port Washington, Wisconsin, over a planned $15 billion data center fell short in gathering enough signatures.
While none of those five recalls have yet made it to ballot, organizers in Sand Springs hope to be an exception.
So far, the group says it has roughly 50% of the nearly 5,000 signatures it would need across the city’s six wards by March 31 to get the recalls on the ballot. Some residents told NBC News they aren’t opposed to AI or development but don’t think an agricultural area should be rezoned for the project when the city has an industrial zone already. “You cannot just keep it a secret from the whole town and then drop it in their laps,” Schmidt said.
The city held information sessions about the project in January, before the City Council approved the rezoning in a 6-1 vote in February.
Last year, about 12% of recall targets were removed from office nationwide, according to an analysis by Ballotpedia. Shaun Bowler, a political science professor at the University of California, Riverside, said being able to rally voters around a common cause at the local level can work in recall organizers’ favor.
“It’s a lot easier to get people mad at politicians than support them,” he said.
Google didn’t respond to questions about the recall. On its site outlining its data center plan, Project Spring, the company says the buildings would occupy less than 10% of the land and provide tax revenue that would shore up municipal budgets, all without straining the electrical grid or the water supply.
