CHARLESTON — With West Virginia set to cast its five electoral votes for Republican President Donald Trump next week, the state is joining a Hail Mary effort to get the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn Democratic former vice president Joe Biden’s apparent victory.

West Virginia Secretary of State Mac Warner certified the state’s election results Wednesday from the Nov. 3 election elections.

The state’s 55 counties canvassed the votes in November and had 30 days from the end of the election to certify their results and send those certifications to the Secretary of State’s Office. The deadline for counties to certify election results this year was Dec. 3.

“West Virginia had one of the most successful, if not the most successful, primary and general election in the nation,” Warner said before signing the certification letters Wednesday. “The COVID-19 pandemic forced us to think outside the box. Our objective has been to guarantee every legally registered voter has had both the right and the opportunity to cast their vote in both the June primary and the November general election.”

Official turnout for the November election was 63.25 percent, which was the largest turnout since the 1960 election that saw John F. Kennedy elected president. Of the state’s 1.3 million registered voters, 802,726 cast ballots in November. Of the votes cast, 145,133 were done by mail-in absentee ballot and 263,012 were cast during early voting — representing more than 50 percent of votes cast.

“The county clerks and the poll workers were instrumental in having this election run properly,” Warner said. “The work continues in the elections arena. We have 231 municipalities in West Virginia, and most of those will be having local elections in the year 2021. So, the business of the clerks and the Elections Division never ceases here in the state.”

One of the documents signed by Warner certified Trump as the winner of West Virginia’s five electoral votes. Trump carried 68.63 percent of the state’s vote on Nov. 3, defeating Biden 545,382 to 235,984 in West Virginia.

Tuesday was the “safe harbor” date, marking the deadline for states to make changes to the slate of electoral college selectees. West Virginia’s five electors will cast their ballots for president on Dec. 14. The five electors who were nominated by the West Virginia Republican Party are Gov. Jim Justice, Lewis Rexroad of Wood County, Beth Bloch of Kanawha County, Paul Hartling of Putnam County, and Gary Dugan of Jefferson County.

Despite winning in West Virginia, Trump did not receive enough electoral votes to win a second term as president. According to the Associated Press, Biden won 306 electoral votes compared to Trump’s 232 electoral votes. As of Tuesday, Biden was ahead of Trump by more than 7 million votes, with Biden receiving more than 81 million votes and Trump receiving more than 74 million votes.

That hasn’t stopped Trump’s campaign and third-party supporters from filing multiple lawsuits in battleground states in order to overturn the will of voters who chose Biden over Trump. More than 50 lawsuits have been thrown out by state and federal courts as of Wednesday.

The U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear a challenge Tuesday to the certification of Pennsylvania’s election results in favor of Biden in a one-sentence ruling with no dissents. The Nevada Supreme Court threw out a similar case to try to overturn the result that saw Biden win by more than 39,000 votes. All of the claims of voter fraud and irregularities have been thrown out due to lack of substantial evidence to support those claims.

Still, Trump supporters are trying one last play to get the U.S. Supreme Court to step in and reverse the election result in favor of Trump. A new case was filed Tuesday by Texas challenging the election results in Pennsylvania, Michigan, Wisconsin and Georgia. Texas is accusing those four states of not conducting fair elections.

Ken Paxton, the Republican Attorney General for Texas, wants those four states’ 62 electoral votes invalidated. According to the Associated Press, experts believe the lawsuit will suffer the same fate as the Pennsylvania lawsuit rejected by the U.S. Supreme Court. In a statement Wednesday afternoon, Attorney General Patrick Morrisey announced that West Virginia will join Texas in the lawsuit. Briefs in the case are due today.

“Many Americans and West Virginians have seen their confidence in the electoral system undermined as they watch one report after another outlining the many, many problems with the 2020 elections. That must change,” Morrisey said. “America and West Virginia deserve to get to the bottom of these really troubling issues. I urge the U.S. Supreme Court to carefully consider Texas’ and the states’ requests.”

Speaking Wednesday morning during his COVID-19 briefing, Gov. Jim Justice said Trump called him this week to encourage the state to join the Texas lawsuit. Justice, a Democratic candidate for governor in 2016 who switched back to Republican in 2017 at the advice of Trump, won a second term as the first elected Republican governor since 1996. Justice and the Trump family are friends, with Donald Trump Jr. often seen hunting with the governor.

“West Virginia is saying we want our rights exercised from the standpoint of how the votes were counted and everything,” Justice said. “We handled ourselves exactly how it should have been handled in this state. We absolutely overwhelmingly voted for President Trump. We want President Trump to have his due.”

Responding to the lawsuit, Warner said the courts will need to make the final decision and the legal process should be allowed to work.

“There is a legal process in place that allows challenges to be taken up,” Warner said. “It’s a novel approach. I think it’s absolutely prudent if the Governor and the Attorney General want to join into that. I think it’s appropriate to let the courts decide the constitutionality and the viability of that challenge.”

(Adams can be contacted at sadams@newsandsentinel.com)