I suppose, but then you'd still have to convert `total` to a number so that max(connect_error_count, total) works in Python 3.

```
>>> max(3, object())
Traceback (most recent call last):
  File "<stdin>", line 1, in <module>
TypeError: unorderable types: object() > int()
```

Alternatively, there could be logic that checks the value of `total` before trying to apply the `max` function. Though  I think I'd prefer just setting `total` as an integer as it's easier to reason about that way.