George Bush, wife voted neither for Hillary Clinton nor Donald Trump

New York: In an unusual break from custom, former US president George W Bush and his wife Laura did not vote for either Donald Trump or Hillary Clinton.

Bush and his wife did not vote for either major-party presidential nominee this year, a spokesman for the former president told the Texas Tribune.

Instead, they voted for Republicans down ballot.

"They didn't vote for Hillary; they didn't vote for Trump," spokesman Freddy Ford wrote in an email to The Texas Tribune after radio host Rush Limbaugh suggested Tuesday that the Bushes had voted for Clinton.

Neither George W Bush nor his father, fellow former president George H W Bush, endorsed their Republican Party's nominee Trump.

Speculation was rife that the Bush senior was planning to vote for Clinton.

His spokesman neither confirmed nor denied reports at the time or on Tuesday.

"We are not commenting on the presidential race," Jim McGrath, a spokesman for George HW Bush, said in an email.