diff --git a/google-civic-api.pl b/google-civic-api.pl
index 5d006e0..905f71c 100755
--- a/google-civic-api.pl
+++ b/google-civic-api.pl
@@ -86,6 +86,7 @@ foreach my $file (@files) {
     # Read and parse the header line to create column mapping
     my $header = <$fh>;
     chomp $header;
+    $header =~ s/^\xef\xbb\xbf//;  # Remove UTF-8 BOM if present (byte sequence)
     print "Header: $header\n" unless $emailCsvArg;
     
     # Parse header to get column indices by name