Harwood, North Dakota voters reject data center limits, clearing Applied Digital site

By Khal · · 1 min read

Editorial illustration: An open metal gate and a ballot box with a blank paper stand beside a road leading to a data center surrounded by golden grass.
AI-generated editorial illustration · AI-generated editorial illustration · Published Nov 7, 2026, 10:57 a.m. (2 hours ago)

In brief

  • About 75% of Harwood voters opposed the Home Rule Charter amendment, per Crypto Briefing.
  • The amendment would have required extra reviews and public hearings for large industrial projects.
  • Applied Digital's 160-acre data center site, with Oracle as planned end user, can continue, per Crypto Briefing.
  • Harwood was the only one of 40+ ballot measures to reject restrictions, according to Crypto Briefing.

What voters turned down

The amendment targeted large industrial projects (data centers among them) and would have mandated additional reviews and public hearings for those projects. It didn't pass. Crypto Briefing said voters rejected it by a wide margin, with about 75% voting no.

LeoDex News hasn't independently checked the official results, so the vote figures here rest on the outlet's report.

Applied Digital's 160-acre site keeps moving

So what changes on the ground? According to Crypto Briefing's report, the outcome lets Applied Digital continue developing a data center on a 160-acre site, with Oracle as the planned end user. Those details (the acreage and the Oracle tie-in) come from the outlet too, and we're attributing them that way.

An outlier, by the outlet's count

Crypto Briefing said Harwood was the only community among more than 40 ballot measures nationwide to vote against data center restrictions, and it described the result as a departure from national trends. That tally is the outlet's, not ours.

It's still one city's vote.

The report also looked ahead to Oklahoma. In Crypto Briefing's analysis, recent market pricing pointed to a lower probability of a statewide data center moratorium there by December 2027. The outlet named Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and the state legislature as the key actors whose actions could shift those market expectations. That's Crypto Briefing's read of the markets, not a forecast from LeoDex News, and anyone tracking data center policy (or the markets pricing it) should treat it as one outlet's analysis.

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