Republican committee members in seven Lancaster County school districts have met to take straw polls in races for GOP chairman and county controller. The party is releasing all the results except for those in the chairman straw polls; county Treasurer Craig Ebersole and former Manheim Township Commissioner Frank Fryburg are seeking the post.

Fryburg said it’s his understanding the party isn’t releasing the results of his endorsement contest to the public “by design” because voters are not involved in selecting the GOP chairman. Straw polls, done by secret ballot, are designed to test the strength of candidates prior to the endorsement convention, being held Feb. 17 at the Farm and Home Center.

Diane Moore, who is serving as the party’s temporary chairwoman until the GOP elects a successor to Dave Dumeyer, explained in an e-mail: “The chairman race is informal interviews only at the straw polls. I think a ‘consensus’ count might have been taken at one, but generally there are no votes on this and we’re not really running anything publicly on those interviews. Not a publicly elected office so this race is not defined by the bylaws for straw poll votes.”

(I asked Fryburg for the results, and he told me he did have them or even ask for them.) He said it’s the first time the party has done straw polls for chairman, and none of the 17 area committeesis being required to take them in that race.

In the race for party endorsement for controller, Keith Greiner, an accountant and former treasurer of the county GOP, came out of the meetings a clear favorite over R.B. Campbell, a Convention Center Authority member and former city controller. Greiner got 77 votes to Campbell’s 11. Stay tuned. There are more meetings later this week.