John McCain’s presidential campaign filed a federal suit Monday against Virginia seeking to extend by 10 days the deadline for the state’s acceptance of military members’ federal absentee ballots.

Word of the suit emerged Monday afternoon, around the time that a separate election-related injunction request to extend voting hours in today’s election was being rejected in federal court.

A national voter rights group, the Advancement Project, and the state NAACP chapter sued the state last week claiming unfair election practices and sought court action to change the distribution of voting machines in Norfolk, Richmond and Virginia Beach, extend polling hours and permit wider use of paper ballots.

Judge Richard Williams did not grant the immediate injunction, though the suit is expected to proceed at a later date. In his ruling, Williams reasoned that last-minute changes to the election format could harm the public in the name of protecting voters potentially disenfranchised by current state election laws.

The McCain suit, meanwhile, seeks an injunction to extend the date by which federal write-in absentee ballots must be received to be counted. The current deadline is today, but the suit seeks to have the date changed to Nov. 14.

(LINK to Hamptonroads.com)