diff --git a/lib/certifi/core.py b/lib/certifi/core.py
index 497d938d..5d2b8cd3 100644
--- a/lib/certifi/core.py
+++ b/lib/certifi/core.py
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+# -*- coding: utf-8 -*-
+
 """
 certifi.py
 ~~~~~~~~~~
@@ -5,8 +7,6 @@ certifi.py
 This module returns the installation location of cacert.pem or its contents.
 """
 import os
-import types
-from typing import Union
 
 try:
     from importlib.resources import path as get_path, read_text
@@ -14,7 +14,7 @@ try:
     _CACERT_CTX = None
     _CACERT_PATH = None
 
-    def where() -> str:
+    def where():
         # This is slightly terrible, but we want to delay extracting the file
         # in cases where we're inside of a zipimport situation until someone
         # actually calls where(), but we don't want to re-extract the file
@@ -40,29 +40,21 @@ try:
 
 
 except ImportError:
-    Package = Union[types.ModuleType, str]
-    Resource = Union[str, "os.PathLike"]
-
     # This fallback will work for Python versions prior to 3.7 that lack the
     # importlib.resources module but relies on the existing `where` function
     # so won't address issues with environments like PyOxidizer that don't set
     # __file__ on modules.
-    def read_text(
-        package: Package,
-        resource: Resource,
-        encoding: str = 'utf-8',
-        errors: str = 'strict'
-    ) -> str:
-        with open(where(), encoding=encoding) as data:
+    def read_text(_module, _path, encoding="ascii"):
+        with open(where(), "r", encoding=encoding) as data:
             return data.read()
 
     # If we don't have importlib.resources, then we will just do the old logic
     # of assuming we're on the filesystem and munge the path directly.
-    def where() -> str:
+    def where():
         f = os.path.dirname(__file__)
 
         return os.path.join(f, "cacert.pem")
 
 
-def contents() -> str:
+def contents():
     return read_text("certifi", "cacert.pem", encoding="ascii")