As expected, Dwayne Yoshina is no longer chief elections officer after the state Election Commission yesterday voted against keeping him in the position until his successor is found.

Instead, the commission voted to put Deputy Chief Elections Officer Rex Quidilla in charge of the office until the commission meets again next month.

In the meantime, a fact-finding committee will come up with a process to name an interim chief elections officer while the commission searches for someone to fill the post permanently.

Quidilla did not say whether he would be interested in being either interim or permanent chief. "First things first," he said. "We need to move forward and organize ourselves in the absence of our longtime boss."

Yoshina, who served as chief elections officer for more than a decade, originally asked commissioners to reappoint him when his contract expired in January, but withdrew that request on Feb. 21.