diff --git a/git_drover.py b/git_drover.py
index a8651815b..8407ec422 100755
--- a/git_drover.py
+++ b/git_drover.py
@@ -320,7 +320,10 @@ class _Drover(object):
     stderr = None if self._verbose else _DEV_NULL_FILE
 
     try:
-      return run(['git'] + args, shell=False, cwd=cwd, stderr=stderr)
+      rv = run(['git'] + args, shell=False, cwd=cwd, stderr=stderr)
+      if sys.version_info.major == 3:
+        return rv.decode('utf-8', 'ignore')
+      return rv
     except (OSError, subprocess.CalledProcessError) as e:
       if error_message:
         raise Error(error_message)
diff --git a/tests/git_drover_test.py b/tests/git_drover_test.py
index 82ac2d5c1..a49be5000 100755
--- a/tests/git_drover_test.py
+++ b/tests/git_drover_test.py
@@ -121,13 +121,16 @@ class GitDroverTest(unittest.TestCase):
         self._fail_on_command == len(self._commands)):
       self._fail_on_command = None
       raise subprocess.CalledProcessError(1, args[0])
+    rv = ''
     if args == ['git', 'rev-parse', '--git-dir']:
-      return os.path.join(self._parent_repo, '.git')
+      rv = os.path.join(self._parent_repo, '.git')
     if args == ['git', '-c', 'core.quotePath=false', 'status', '--porcelain']:
-      return ' D foo\nUU baz\n D bar\n'
+      rv = ' D foo\nUU baz\n D bar\n'
     if args == ['git', 'log', '-1', '--format=%ae']:
-      return 'author@domain.org'
-    return ''
+      rv = 'author@domain.org'
+    if sys.version_info.major == 3:
+      return bytes(rv, 'utf-8')
+    return rv
 
   def _Popen(self, args, shell=False, cwd=None, stdin=None, stdout=None,
              stderr=None):