Wasn't that bad of a idea. North Dakota is the only state that is actually losing population. At least they tried to do something to keep students in state and not leave like most of them do.
I think ND gained population by every estimate since the census. Other states that have lost population since then are Michigan and Massachusetts (at least did at some interval, don't know if they did overall.) but the overall point is valid and puts into context what the correlation is for how counties voted.
