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Maury King of Wailuku has an idea on how to ensure that mail-in ballots get mailed in.

His #LeaveRoomForBallots campaign asks people and businesses to #LightenTheLoad — another of King’s social media hashtags — of the U.S. Postal Service next month.

If you don’t need to place a big order from Amazon in October, for example, don’t. Do it this month or after Election Day on Nov. 3.

The purpose is to “leave room” in the mail system for “ballots to move smoothly,” as a press release advises.

“The concept is to ask people to ease up on anything nonessential for the month of October,” King told me recently. “Do your ordering online ahead of time, and don’t send out Christmas cards earlier.”

He added, “And if you know anyone who works for a big company, ask them to contact our campaign or ask them to do their next bulk mailing after the election. That would be awesome.”

The possibility that a mail-in ballot might not arrive to state and county elections offices in time to be counted is real. President Trump has been calling voting by mail a bad system that will result in fraud and rig the election, even though Trump is pushing a false argument and he himself votes by mail.

“All voter fraud is extremely rare,” The New York Times Aug. 31, citing .

Experts do say that voting by mail is more vulnerable than voting in person, however. Ballot harvesting — collecting absentee ballots and filling them out in favor of a certain candidate — or voting twice — by mail and in person — does happen.

But the incidents have been few and are often detected by election officials.

Still, NPR that around 37% of Americans cited in a recent survey “say they plan to cast their ballots by mail this year.”

Absentee ballots for the November election were mailed out to North Carolina voters , and voters in about two dozen other states will begin receiving their ballots .

In Hawaii, some ballots could arrive in mail boxes as early as Oct. 8 or 9, well ahead of the state’s original plan to get the ballots in the mail by Oct. 16. Elections officials recommend voters mail their ballots back no later than Oct. 27. After that, it’s best to drop the ballot off at a .

There is also the matter of the pandemic.

“Because of the coronavirus pandemic a record number of Americans are expected to cast their ballots by mail this year,” says NPR.

And then there is Postmaster General Louis DeJoy, a Trump donor and appointee who has come under harsh criticism — such as from U.S. Rep. Ed Case — for making “a direct and coordinated attack on the USPS,” as Case put it last month.

Under pressure, DeJoy said he would hold off on making more major changes to the postal system until after the election, but many Democrats fear damage has already been done by disrupting delivery.

Asked about Trump’s view on voting by mail, King called it shocking and inappropriate for the president to “do what looks like sabotaging the election and making it not fair, and trying to discourage people from voting. It’s been proven that voter fraud is ridiculously low and penalties for it are harsh.”

He continued: “This will make a big mess of Election Day. It’s scary.”

Please ‘Like’ Our Campaign

King, 70, grew up in Los Angeles and later lived in Seattle. He has spent the last 13 years on Maui, which included work in real estate.

But King has also been active in his community in other ways. He is a former board member of , an environmental watchdog.

He also founded , which is focused on education, growing food and producing energy locally. King’s work with that group, he said, “morphed” into , a school garden program.

He also penned to the Maui News last year to boost legal cannabis: “C’mon, lawmakers. You know it’s coming. Let’s get it done in 2020. And please, structure things horizontally. I’m a cannabis voter. Where do you stand?”

For the #LeaveRoomforBallots campaign, King has spent a couple of thousand dollars, which included asking Taryn Kama of and to help with PR. That’s how I learned about King’s work.

“Please ‘Like’ our campaign (on social media), and if you want to help, contact any bulk mailers you know and ask them to participate by scheduling their mailings to avoid this critical time period,” Kama’s press release states.

Friends of King’s helped out with graphic design and web work. And King has reached out to Bill Maher, who recently pitched a similar idea on his show. (No word yet from Maher.)

“I had the idea first, but I am happy to have the word get out there,” said King.