It will be several hours before Sanford election results are finished being tallied, according to town officials.

Election workers were still counting absentee ballots shortly after 11 p.m. and waiting for the town’s five polling places to report back numbers. The town clerk’s office estimated it could be several hours before results are available.

Sanford residents were faced with an eight-way race for three town council seats and a proposed charter that would change the town to a city.

The proposed charter, developed over 18 months by the Charter Commission, would change Sanford’s name from a town to a city, create an elected mayoral position to lead the city council and eliminate the representative town meeting.

If approved, the new charter would replace the town meeting – the only of its kind in Maine – with an annual referendum on the municipal and school budgets.

An appointed budget committee would replace the elected finance committee that now sends the budgets to town meeting for approval.