the time, Obama had released his long-form birth certificate but CBS News noted that "so-called "birthers" persist with a variety of arguments that he is ineligible for the presidency. Generally, they claim that the birth certificate as released by the president is a forgery or that he is not eligible for the presidency despite being born in Hawaii." Kobach maintained that the questioning of Obama's citizenship was not frivolous. Later that September, after a complainant dropped his challenge of Obama's eligibility for the Kansas ballot and after Hawaii officials sent a note to Kobach saying that Obama's birth certificate was genuine, Kobach allowed Obama to remain on the ballot and said, "That, for me, settles the issue". In 2016, Kobach said that there are "interesting things" about the question of Obama's citizenship that "just made you scratch your head." Kobach said that Obama's opposition to the Kansas proof of citizenship requirement law was possibly because the president was not a citizen himself: "maybe that's why he doesn't talk about proof of citizenship, because he, you know, he would rather not bring up the citizenship issue." Personal life and activities Kobach was born in Madison, Wisconsin, to Janice Mardell (née Iverson) and William Louis Kobach. His great-grandparents were Bohemian and German on his father's side and Norwegian on his mother's side; they came to Wisconsin in the 1890s, where they were mostly farmers. At the age of seven, in 1974, Kobach moved to Kansas with his parents and two sisters, and grew up mostly in Topeka where his father owned the Bill Kobach Buick-GMC car dealership. Kobach was married on June 23, 2001 to Heather Mannschreck, a former environmental systems engineer who now has a part-time photography business in addition to homeschooling their five daughters. Kobach, his wife, and their children live on their farm near Lecompton, north of Lawrence, Kansas. Their residence is in a building, the permits for which Kobach originally received lower taxation and permitting fees due to claimed intent for agricultural exemptions, rather than residential use. He stated he intends to build a residential home on the property. When building it, Kobach "closed in" the plumbing and electric work so it was not possible for the building inspector to examine it without tearing up the floor and removing walls that covered wiring. There was no septic system or water source. Despite those difficulties, he was granted permit