The kind of jack-ass feature that's been carefully kept by its creator despite a number of people doing exactly what you did and then complaining about it. I've honestly got no idea why.
You just have to hover it for the kudo counting. How many are from people that didn't even see the widget? Or people like me, that just read it, and discovered that I was interacting with it only after it counted my vote?
Anyway, it doesn't have any consequence. It's just some feelgood freature... Kind of stupid to have a counter that doesn't count anything real.
EDIT: Looks like all the sites built on svbtle do that. What kind of jack-ass "feature" is that?