If I try to convert to utf-8 (which according to the somewhat confusing docs is python's native "bytestring" format?) before passing the string, I get the same result, which is itself odd, since ...

How to Convert a File From ANSI to UTF8. ANSI and UTF-8 are two types of text encoding. The former is the default encoding that is used when you save text files created in Notepad, the text editor ...