Instead of having a two element radio box ('-1','+1') there are three ('-1', 'Null', '+1'). The 'Null' option simply means "dont cast a vote on this node," and it comes preselected on all the nodes. So your options are still the same, you just have the ability to uncheck a vote before you send in your votes for the entire page.

I also did this. I came into the fray quite early, and downvoted the original post hoping to alert the NodeReaper. After it became clear that the post was going to stay, I became interested in the rest of the scores. Normally it takes a lot for me to '--' a post, and I have done so rarely.

Imagine an internal scale in my head from -10 to +10. A post would normally have to fall below -8 or above +8 for me to cast a vote. However, in this case most of sierrathedog04's posts fell around -2 in my book. Since I wanted to see the rep, and I was slightly leaning in the negative direction, I cast several '--' votes, that I wouldn't have otherwise.

In otherwords, something has to be compelling about a post for me to vote on it. Usually that means it is extraordinarilly good or extraordinarilly bad. In this case it was midly bad, with a compelling urge to see what its rep was.

In retrospect, the loss of both parties wasn't worth it.