When you have two candidates whose primary argument for running for Arkansas Secretary of State is (1) our elections are fraught with fraud and (2) only [insert candidate] can fix that, it’s only natural that a very close election is going to result in one of them requesting a recount.

According to KARK, that’s exactly what has happened. Bryan Norris, who lost Tuesday’s runoff to Sen. Kim Hammer (R-Benton), has requested a recount of the nearly 81,000 votes cast statewide in that race.

Hammer defeated Norris by fewer than 1,000 votes in the unofficial count. All told, Hammer took 50.6%of the votes compared to Norris’ 49.4. (KARK incorrectly reported that Hammer “defeated Norris by less than 1%.”)

Arkansas law does not have an automatic recount provision, regardless of the margin between two candidates. Norris, as the person making the request, will have to pay for the recount. If the recount changes the outcome of the election, however, the state is required to reimburse him.

“This is not about being a sore loser,” Norris told KARK. “This is about the voters of Arkansas who deserve to know with absolute certainty that every ballot was counted correctly. When a race is decided by a fraction of a percentage point, the law provides a process for verification. We are using that process exactly as it was intended.”

This race was not “decided by a fraction of a percentage point,” of course, but Norris has never been one to let reality get in the way of a rant about election integrity.

And speaking of not letting something get in the way of integrity, it warrants mention that Norris’ attorney in this quixotic tilting at windmills is Clint Lancaster. Lancaster, you may recall, is the blowhard MAGA attorney who recently made a fool of himself in a Saline County defamation lawsuit, leading the judge in that case to strike Lancaster’s pleading from the record and warn him that further sanctions awaited if Lancaster continued to act unprofessionally in court filings.