diff --git a/Modules/binascii.c b/Modules/binascii.c
index f284b6b..4623b7c 100644
--- a/Modules/binascii.c
+++ b/Modules/binascii.c
@@ -1028,7 +1028,7 @@
 static PyObject*
 binascii_a2b_qp(PyObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs)
 {
-	unsigned int in, out;
+	Py_ssize_t in, out;
 	char ch;
 	unsigned char *data, *odata;
 	Py_ssize_t datalen = 0;
@@ -1129,7 +1129,7 @@
 static PyObject*
 binascii_b2a_qp (PyObject *self, PyObject *args, PyObject *kwargs)
 {
-	unsigned int in, out;
+	Py_ssize_t in, out;
 	unsigned char *data, *odata;
 	Py_ssize_t datalen = 0, odatalen = 0;
 	PyObject *rv;