vote_up_down widget doesn't display in IE : why $(this).html='',

Hi, I'm using v5.x and the normal widget.
It displays fine in Firefox but doesn't show in IE. In fact, I can see jQuery removing the arrows. I have used the code in the packaged module and I am puzzled by the code

First, the javascript and this in particular:$(this).html='';
This seems to me like it is removing the A tag and thus the background image therefore defeating the whole point of the tag.

Secondly, that A tag defined here

      $output .= '<span id="vote_up_'. $cid .'" class="'. $class .'" title="'. url("vote_up_down/$type/$cid/1/1") .'">'. l('', "vote_up_down/$type/$cid/1", array('class' => $class, 'title' => t('Vote up')), drupal_get_destination(), NULL, FALSE, TRUE) .'</span>';
      $output .= '<span id="vote_down_'. $cid .'" class="'. $class2 .'" title="'. url("vote_up_down/$type/$cid/-1/1") .'">'. l('', "vote_up_down/$type/$cid/-1", array('class' => $class2, 'title' => t('Vote down')), drupal_get_destination(), NULL, FALSE, TRUE) .'</span>';

.
What is the point of doing AJAX if we're going to reload the page when the user clicks ?

To get everything to display in IE, I just removed that piece of javascript but I am getting SQL errors and I suspect they are related to this (Unable to save result set).
My setup includes anonymous voting. You can see it at : http://www.mybadday.net