<P> President Carter's proposed program for the reform of the Electoral College was very liberal for a modern president during this time, and in some aspects of the package, it went beyond original expectations . Newspapers like The New York Times saw President Carter's proposal at that time as "a modest surprise" because of the indication of Carter that he would be interested in only eliminating the electors but retaining the electoral vote system in a modified form . </P> <P> Newspaper reaction to Carter's proposal ranged from some editorials praising the proposal to other editorials, like that in the Chicago Tribune, criticizing the president for proposing the end of the Electoral College . </P> <P> In a letter to The New York Times, Representative Jonathan B. Bingham (D - New York) highlighted the danger of the "flawed, outdated mechanism of the Electoral College" by underscoring how a shift of fewer than 10,000 votes in two key states would have led to President Gerald Ford being reelected despite Jimmy Carter's nationwide 1.7 million - vote margin . </P> <P> On January 5, 2017, Representative Steve Cohen (D - Tennessee) introduced a joint resolution proposing a constitutional amendment that would replace the Electoral College with the popular election of the President and Vice President . Unlike the Bayh--Celler amendment 40% threshold for election, Cohen's proposal only requires a candidate to have the "greatest number of votes" to be elected . </P>

When do we vote for the electoral college