FEP 43 Page 40 P: Wow. M: So, Judge Posner is not one of my favorite human beings. [He's a] brilliant man, I mean he was number one in his class at Harvard Law School and I respect his intelligence, but once I read that I said, well, I have no use for this guy. P: As we talked a little earlier, and I just wanted to get this on the record, there is a lawsuit now pending from a congressman against Teresa LePore and the current Secretary of State to provide a paper record for the new touch screens. Do you think that lawsuit has validity? M: I think it does because the statute still requires that a mechanism be allowed for a recount, and if there's no paper ballot, there's no means to conduct a recount. P: One of the things that Judge Lewis said that in the state statute, there are fines for late returns. He said, well they must have to allow late returns if they put a fine in there. They must have assumed that sometimes they're going to have a recount, and in a county like Dade, you can't do all that in seven days. M: Well, if they were organized they could have, and if they had not been intimidated, as they were, they could have. P: How has this experience changed your life? M: Well, it's interesting. By nature I'm a very private person. Not only do I not seek the limelight, I try to avoid it. And there I was for eight to ten days on, not merely nationwide television, but on worldwide television. I remember the end of the week after we concluded the recount on time I got a telephone call from my former law partner. He said to me, well Mike, I've been seeing you on television every day, several times during the day. He was calling me from Italy. He said, I have seen you on CNN International, I have seen you on BBC World Television, when I was in Germany I saw you on German television, and now that I'm in Italy I'm seeing you on Italian television. It was nice. There was a period for about three months when every time I went to the grocery store or got gasoline, somebody would walk up to me. All the feedback I got from ordinary people was very nice, and still once in awhile someone still says to me, you know I've never met you until now, but I'd like you to know that I'm very proud of the job you did on that recount. But you know, as I said, not only do I not seek publicity, I tend to want to avoid it, so I felt uncomfortable. But it's interesting, the day after we concluded our recount I was here having lunch, and I [had] just finished watching my favorite judge on CNN [when] there 40