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Calling the current US system for choosing a president 鈥渙utdated鈥� and 鈥渦ndemocratic,鈥� Sen. Barbara Boxer introduced a bill on Tuesday that would abolish the Electoral College.聽

The senator from California, who is retiring in January, aims to amend the Constitution to eliminate the Electoral College and establish the principle of 鈥渙ne person, one vote鈥� in presidential elections. Such movements have been revived following the 2016 election, where Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton 鈥撀爓ho is expected to win the popular vote by more than 2 million votes 鈥撀爈ost to Republican nominee Donald Trump, who won the Electoral College.

Though the constitutional amendment is unlikely to pass, the bill is one of a number of reform efforts that suggest shifting American attitudes toward democracy. Efforts are already underway to make the Electoral College obsolete at the state level, and these efforts could win new support following the closely-fought 2016 election.

鈥淭he Electoral College is that does not reflect our modern society, and it needs to change immediately. Every American should be guaranteed that their vote counts,鈥� Senator Boxer said in a statement on Tuesday.

The Electoral College assigns a certain number of votes to each state. With the exceptions of Maine and Nebraska, the winner takes all of a state鈥檚 electoral votes.聽

President-elect Trump鈥檚 victory is the fifth time that a candidate has won the Electoral College 鈥� and the election 鈥� without winning the popular vote. The last time this happened was in 2000, when the Supreme Court ended a recount in Florida, giving the state to George W. Bush. Al Gore won the popular vote.

Over the years, hundreds of bills have been introduced to eliminate the Electoral College. Boxer herself has co-sponsored several, though none have been considered.

MoveOn.org, a progressive digital organizing group, has a petition . The petition had more than 540,000 signatures as of Wednesday morning, which may be a sign of new momentum on the issue following Clinton鈥檚 surprise loss.

Attitudes may also be shifting on the Republican side. In 2012, Mr Trump tweeted: 鈥淭he electoral college is a .鈥� In a CBS 鈥�60 Minutes鈥� interview on Sunday, he said that his win would not change his attitude, explaining, 鈥淚 would rather see it where you went with simple votes. You know, you get 100 million votes and somebody else gets 90 million votes and you win."

On Tuesday morning, however, he reversed that criticism, calling the system 鈥済enius鈥�:

Ultimately, an amendment may be unlikely, at least in the near future. It would require a two-thirds majority in both chambers of Congress, and three-fourths of the states would then have to ratify the amendment within seven years.

However, change is already underway at the state level, where 10 states and the District of Columbia . The plan currently represents 165 Electoral College votes, meaning it needs states totaling 105 more votes to sign on in order to become the de facto means of electing a president.

But as noted in 2014, swing states such as Ohio, New Hampshire, and Colorado, which have the most influence over the system now, have little incentive to join the push for a popular vote:聽

These states, along with Florida, Virginia, Nevada, Iowa, Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, collectively had a 98.6 percent chance of determining the Electoral College winner in 2012, according to the FiveThirtyEight聽聽as it was聽聽on election morning. In other words, these nine states are 70 times more powerful than the other 41 (which collectively had a 1.4 percent chance of determining the winner) combined. That鈥檚 part of the reason聽. But states whose voters have a disproportionate amount of influence may be in no mood to give it up.

Others are hoping that states鈥� representatives when they meet in mid-December. Some 4.3 million Americans are asking them to choose Clinton instead, though .

The electors convene on December 19th to formally elect the next US president.