When most people run a poll, they run it for more than 23 hours. So even if the majority did not want it this still would likely have gone through, and the change made.
Also since it was such a simple fix, perhaps moving the downvote arrow to the other side of the pending payout would be a simple thing to accomplish.I know there is a pop up box, I know it is impossible to downvote accidentally, (you have to click twice, first the arrow then the submit button), still it would look more balanced to have it on the other side of the pending payout.