KVIG Informative

Tech companies have lobbyists, trade groups and campaign contributions working the Legislature. Boulder City residents are skipping all of that and going straight to a ballot.

Boulder City voters will decide a ballot measure this November on whether to prohibit data center construction within city limits entirely — a binding local vote that bypasses the lobbying and campaign-finance channels the industry has used everywhere else in Nevada.

The measure arrives as data centers have become what one Nevada political commentary outlet described as a defining issue heading into the state’s 2026 elections, with the topic expected to shape both the NV-02 congressional race and the governor’s race this fall.

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Public opinion nationally leans toward the Boulder City position. A Gallup poll conducted in May found seven in 10 Americans oppose data center construction in their local area — a higher opposition rate than nuclear power plants drew in the same survey.

Boulder City’s vote is happening against a backdrop of statewide regulatory paralysis. Henderson’s city council is weighing its own moratorium. Clark County commissioners began considering data center standards after a Sierra Club-organized press conference outside a July commission meeting drew candidates for both the Nevada Assembly and Clark County Commission. Reno has already enacted a pause on new data center construction extending into 2027.

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Nevada isn’t alone in the scramble to write rules on the fly. South Dakota passed a law allowing local governments to regulate or ban data centers outright. Ohio voters may decide their own statewide ballot initiative to ban data centers requiring 25 megawatts or more of power.

The Nevada Legislature doesn’t reconvene until 2027, leaving a patchwork of county-by-county and city-by-city decisions to fill the gap in the meantime — decisions that, unlike a statewide law, tech industry lobbyists can’t negotiate with a single vote in Carson City.