People who do not believe President Barack Obama was born in Honolulu in 1961 have stepped up their requests for proof of his birth this month, in the hopes that the new gubernatorial administration will offer more information.

The state Department of Health says it has received 27 requests for information about Obama’s birth certificate this month, compared with 16 in November. There were 16 requests alone in the first half of this week, although most came from a single person…

Despite the spike in requests, questions about Obama’s birth certificate have largely been subsiding.

In May, then-Gov. Linda Lingle signed a law to allow the state to ignore repetitive requests from the same person. Earlier this year the state was receiving about 50 requests a month, but that started to decline before Lingle signed the law, state officials said.