On May 18, 2026, roughly 120 Lowell Township residents packed the high school performing arts center to make their voices heard. For months, they had organized, attended meetings, and pleaded with their elected representatives to slow down a massive proposed Microsoft data center — one that could consume enormous amounts of water and electricity — until the township had time to set proper rules. The Lowell Township Board of Trustees listened, then voted no anyway, 5 to 2.

Trustees Carlton Blough, Andy Vander Ziel, and three of their colleagues rejected a six-month moratorium that would have given the township a window to figure out what kind of data center rules it actually wants. Blough himself admitted he didn't fully understand the issues at hand — and then voted against the very pause that would have given him time to learn. Vander Ziel said the board needed to be "methodical" and take things slowly, then voted to skip the one tool designed to do exactly that.

This isn't a difference of opinion on policy. This is a board that, by its own admission, doesn't have the information it needs — and still voted to keep the door open for a project that residents have opposed for six months straight.

Michigan has seen this before. In Green Charter Township, after the board repeatedly overrode its residents on the Gotion battery plant project, all seven board members were recalled. Lowell Township is on the same path. The five trustees who voted no on May 18 chose the interests of a $3 trillion tech company over the people who elected them. That's not representation — that's disregard.

We are calling for the recall of the five Lowell Township Board of Trustees members who voted against the data center moratorium. Elected officials who won't listen to the people they serve shouldn't keep their seats.

Sign this petition to show the Lowell Township Board that their constituents are watching — and that accountability is coming.