Former Senate majority leader Harry M. Reid has in the past boasted about spreading misinformation ahead of a presidential election. Now he’s back with another unproven claim.

The Nevada Democrat, in a book previewed by The Washington Post’s Carlos Lozada, says there is “no question” that Russia altered vote totals during the 2016 election contest between Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton.

“I think one reason the elections weren’t what they should have been was because the Russians manipulated the votes,” Reid said. “It’s that simple.”

Reid added in the book: “It doesn’t take a math expert to understand that by changing a few votes, the outcome will be different. So, I have no doubt.”

It’s not that simple, according to the U.S. intelligence community and congressional investigations — much less indisputable. While those entities have said Russia tried to influence the 2016 election in other ways, they have said there’s no evidence of manipulation of actual votes.

A bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report on Russia’s interference has a full section called “NO EVIDENCE OF CHANGED VOTES OR MANIPULATED VOTE TALLIES.” In it, the report states:

In its review, the Committee has seen no indications that votes were changed, vote tallying systems were manipulated, or that any voter registration data was altered or deleted, although the Committee and [intelligence community’s] insight is limited. Poll workers and voting monitors did not report widespread suspicious activity surrounding the 2016 election. DHS Assistant Secretary Jeanette Manfra said in the Committee’s open hearing in June 2017 that “I want to reiterate that we do have confidence in the overall integrity of our electoral system because our voting infrastructure is fundamentally resilient.” Further, all three witnesses in that hearing — Ms. Manfra, Dr. [Samuel] Liles [the acting director of cyber division in the Department of Homeland Security’s Office of Intelligence and Analysis], and FBI Assistant Director for Counterintelligence Bill Priestap — agreed that they had no evidence that votes themselves were changed in any way in the 2016 election.

Special counsel Robert S. Mueller III’s 2019 report on that Russia investigation states that his team didn’t examine this question, but the U.S. intelligence community in January 2017 issued a report echoing the Senate Intelligence Committee.

“Russian intelligence obtained and maintained access to elements of multiple US state or local electoral boards,” the report said. “DHS assesses that the types of systems Russian actors targeted or compromised were not involved in vote tallying.”

It’s worth emphasizing that this was the DHS under the Obama administration, not the Trump administration — so an administration of Reid’s own party.

There remains no evidence that Russia actually changed vote totals. President Trump and top Trump administration officials have exaggerated that fact to suggest it means Russia didn’t have any impact on the election. In fact, Russia’s efforts to disseminate hacked Democratic emails could well have influenced how legitimate votes were cast. And given Trump’s very narrow victory in 2016, by less than one percentage point in the states that decided the race — Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin — saying definitively that Russia didn’t change the result or have an impact isn’t at all borne out.

But neither is Reid’s claim that Russia manipulated vote totals. It’s true that there is plenty of evidence that Russia sought to intrude on various boards of elections across the country, but that doesn’t mean it was trying to hack votes or was successful. And thus far, there is no evidence provided by the U.S. government that it did. In addition, questioning the legitimacy of U.S. elections is exactly the kind of outcome that Russian President Vladimir Putin would have hoped for.

And it’s something that Democratic voters have shown they’re inclined to believe. A 2018 poll showed as many as two-thirds of Democrats believed Russia tampered with vote tallies — despite the lack of evidence. So it’s clear there is a receptive audience for what Reid is alleging.

That allegation must be viewed in the context of his past allegations.

During the 2012 election, Reid said he had been told that GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney hadn’t paid taxes for 10 years. That turned out to be utterly false. But not only wasn’t Reid apologizing for it, he actually boasted about how it might have damaged Romney’s candidacy. “Romney didn’t win, did he?” Reid said in 2015.

Reid’s defenders have pointed to his commentary on Russian interference during the 2016 election, which predated public disclosures about it and which they argued showed he knows what he’s talking about. A week before that election, Reid sent a letter to then-FBI Director James B. Comey with what at that point appeared to be a remarkable claim.

“In my communications with you and other top officials in the national security community, it has become clear that you possess explosive information about close ties and coordination between Donald Trump, his top advisers, and the Russian government — a foreign interest openly hostile to the United States, which Trump praises at every opportunity,” Reid said. “The public has a right to know this information.”

It wasn’t precisely clear what the senator was referring to. But soon, details of the Trump campaign’s interactions with Russia bubbled to the top. The Mueller report ultimately stated that it “did not establish that the Trump Campaign coordinated with the Russian government in its election interference activities.”

The pattern of Reid making unproven claims has become evident. He would certainly argue that there’s at least a shred of truth in them — or at least that he raised a valid issue. Indeed, discussing the Romney allegation with The Post’s Ben Terris in 2016, Reid said the following:

People bring that up, it’s one of the best things I’ve ever done. Why? Because I knew what he had done was not be transparent and forthright about his taxes and to get somebody in the Obama ‘reelect,’ I tried to get one of the senators, I tried to get one of the outside groups, but nobody would do it. So I did it. And with that, like everything, I think in life, here’s something I learned from my father, if you’re going to do something, don’t do it half-assed, don’t play around. With the Mitt Romney stuff, I didn’t play around.

In other words, Reid couldn’t get any of his allies — or President Barack Obama’s allies — to promote the claim. So he did it himself. And it turned out to be wrong.

Terris also asked Reid whether there was a line he wouldn’t cross when it comes to political warfare.

Reid responded, “I don’t know what that line would be."

It’s nearly impossible to disprove Reid’s claim. But that commentary would sure seem relevant in this moment.