<P> On March 22, 1977, President Jimmy Carter wrote a letter of reform to Congress that also included his expression of essentially abolishing the Electoral College . The letter read in part: </P> <P> My fourth recommendation is that the Congress adopt a Constitutional amendment to provide for direct popular election of the President . Such an amendment, which would abolish the Electoral College, will ensure that the candidate chosen by the voters actually becomes President . Under the Electoral College, it is always possible that the winner of the popular vote will not be elected . This has already happened in three elections, 1824, 1876, and 1888 . In the last election, the result could have been changed by a small shift of votes in Ohio and Hawaii, despite a popular vote difference of 1.7 million . I do not recommend a Constitutional amendment lightly . I think the amendment process must be reserved for an issue of overriding governmental significance . But the method by which we elect our President is such an issue . I will not be proposing a specific direct election amendment . I prefer to allow the Congress to proceed with its work without the interruption of a new proposal . </P> <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>

When was the electoral college created and by whom