  It has long been known that the covariant formulation of quantum
electrodynamics conflicts with the local description of states in the charged
sector. Some of the solutions to this problem amount to modifications of the
subsidiary conditions below some arbitrarily low photon frequency. Such
infrared modified theories have been shown to be equivalent to standard Maxwell
electrodynamics with an additional classical electromagnetic current induced by
the quantum charges. The induced current only has support for very small
frequencies and cancels the effects of the physical charges on large scales. In
this work we explore the possibility that this de-electrification effect could
allow for the existence of isotropic charged cosmologies, thus evading the
stringent limits on the electric charge asymmetry of the universe. We consider
a simple model of infrared-modified scalar electrodynamics in the cosmological
context and find that the charged sector generates a new contribution to the
energy-momentum tensor whose dominant contribution at late times is a
cosmological constant-like term. If the charge asymmetry was generated during
inflation, the limits on the asymmetry parameter in order not to produce a
too-large cosmological constant are very stringent $\eta_Q <10^{-131}-
10^{-144}$ for a number of e-folds $N=50-60$ in typical models. However if the
charge imbalance is produced after inflation, the limits are relaxed in such a
way that $\eta_Q<10^{-43}(100 \,\mbox{GeV}/T_Q)$, with $T_Q$ the temperature at
which the asymmetry was generated. If the charge asymmetry has ever existed and
the associated electromagnetic fields vanish in the asymptotic future, the
limit can be further reduced to $\eta_Q<10^{-28}$.
