For months, one of the key questions surrounding the alleged election systems breach in Mesa County centered on the identity of a man who allegedly assisted with the copying of election software last year.

That man has finally been identified as Conan James Hayes of California, according to an arrest affidavit for the county’s former elections manager.

It’s a name familiar to folks who follow claims that the 2020 election was stolen from former President Donald Trump. The Arizona Mirror reported last year that Hayes was tied to those claims in Michigan and Arizona. 

Hayes, a surfer and former clothing company owner, was listed in court filings in Michigan as an expert on “application security, systems, process, generally accepted programming practices, standards of care, as it relates to application development of sensitive systems.”

Hayes’ identity came out in an arrest affidavit for former Mesa County Elections Manager Sandra Brown, according to the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel. She was arrested on Monday on felony charges of conspiracy to commit criminal impersonation and attempting to influence a public servant.

The affidavit said Hayes had been in Mesa County during the May 2021 trusted build, with hotel reservations purchased by Sheronna Bishop, formerly the 2020 campaign manager for U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert, R-Silt. Hayes’ location was also verified by cell phone records, according to the affidavit.

“Hayes allegedly flew out of Grand Junction Regional Airport on May 26, 2021, and the following day county records show that Peters and Brown shipped a package, at county expense, to Hayes’ address in Agoura Hills, California,” the affidavit said. “The contents of that package are unknown.”

Hayes also was identified in the Arizona story as having accepted documents tied to the Mesa County incident and handing them over to Ron Watkins, an Arizona congressional candidate and the purported architect of the QAnon. He appeared at the August 2021 cyber-symposium hosted by MyPillow CEO Mike Lindell, in which Peters also appeared. Watkins has denied any involvement in QAnon, telling CBS News last year, “I am not Q. I never have been Q. I’ve never written a Q post. I’ve never collaborated with the people that have written a Q post. So, no, I was not involved in that.” 

Peters had claimed a “Gerald Wood” was the man who, using an county employee ID, entered a secured room where a “trusted build” was to take place last year and helped make copies of the county’s election system.

Among the indictments handed down to Peters and Deputy Clerk Belinda Knisley by a Mesa County grand jury is identity theft on Wood, who had allegedly given the employee ID badge back to Knisley before the trusted build took place and never worked for the Mesa County Clerk’s office. 

Peters did not respond to a request for comment. Brown was fired from Mesa County last November over the incident.