Story highlights The Bushes have remained silent about the 2016 election

A former Maryland lieutenant governor says Bush is voting for Clinton

Washington (CNN) A daughter of Robert Kennedy, Kathleen Kennedy Townsend, said in a Facebook post that former Republican President George H.W. Bush told her he's voting for -- wait for it -- Hillary Clinton.

Townsend, a Democrat who served as Maryland lieutenant governor for eight years and goes by Hartington online, posted a photo with the former president to Facebook: "The President told me he's voting for Hillary!!" wrote Kennedy Townsend, a niece of President John F. Kennedy.

Jim McGrath, a spokesman for Bush, did not confirm nor deny the claim.

"The vote President Bush will cast as a private citizen in some 50 days will be just that: a private vote cast in some 50 days," McGrath told CNN. "He is not commenting on the presidential race in the interim."

Townsend met with Bush at the family compound in Kennebunkport, Maine, during a board meeting for the bipartisan Points of Light Foundation. Sources with knowledge of the conversation told CNN's Jamie Gangel they were surprised and disappointed that she had publicly shared a private conversation with the former president.