I think it needs more than a few reforms to make it trustworthy.  For a democratically elected Republic, anyway.

The agreement between states to have electors vote in accordance with the popular vote could be an intesting way around that if it's constitutional. 

1. Get rid of the Electoral College completely. (Goodbye to GOP Presidents!)

2. Keep the EC, but if you win it but not the popular vote, you're possibly a one-term President. Oh, you can run for re-election, but your party is under no obligation to support you or fund your re-election campaign. Good luck getting a second term if/when they pick someone else. With one addition: If you lose the popular vote by a landslide, then you have to wait until after the next election to run again; no chance of back to back terms.

Of course the problem is getting enough states to sign off on this compact to put it into effect.  So far, it's all blue states that have approved it.  The big problem is that there is a perception that the Electoral College benefits Republicans (which at least at the moment appears to be true) so of course no red state wants to approve it.  If only 120,000 people had voted for Kerry instead of Bush in Ohio in 2004, that would have resulted in Kerry winning the Electoral College while still losing the popular vote.  If we'd had two consecutive elections in which the popular vote winner lost the election, one from each party, that could have created the impetus to get things changed.  But at this point, the notion that the Electoral College helps red states is baked in too deeply for reform to be possible.