But how about ordering? At the end of the day, these votes determine which submission makes it to the front page. Allowing down voting but sorting by upvotes might be one solution.
>>hcho+(OP)
This is a good idea and conceptually similar to showing how many times something has been flagged as off topic.
Although I still maintain that upvote and "off-topic" are not symmetric actions.. but choosing between public visibility of data vs "cabal of secret editors" is a no-brainer IMO.