I was messing around the other day with someone because there was a 'mute campaign' going and managed to accumulate 16 mutes. I won the race we were having, but chickened out on the last 4. That was about 4 or 5 days ago though. When I checked tonight, I found that I was still at 16 mute votes. And gained an additional 3 by mentioning it on 100 before I got yelled at and told to log off ;^). I'm told the votes should only stand for 24 hrs so I thought I'd mention it.

I'm not so much worried about ending up muted as this being an indefinite threat of punishment for other players.

Whoever told you votes hung around for 24 hours was a damn dirty liar. They've always hung around for around a week for me.
Now, if you're muted by user vote, the mute I think should last 24 hours.

Also worth noting is mutes now last more than 24 hours. One player got muted and not just once but something like 4 times in a row.

So does anyone know for sure how long votes last? and can we confirm that the mute lasts 24 hours? And after a vote mute does the vote get reset to 0?

As blacknet is trying to "subtly" point out, I have quite extensive experience with the vote mute system.

As best as I can remember, the first few times I've been muted, the mute lasted 24 hours and the vote count was reset to 0 when I logged on after being unmuted. I vaguely remember at some point the mute lasting 48 hours or so; then there was a time when it lasted a week; then two weeks or so at the end of this summer; and most recently about a month starting in the beginning of december.

I can't say if this is or isn't how it's supposed to work, since I've never cared enough to ask, but that's been my fun experience, and I recommend it to everyone!