The 'hot' rankings aren't total votes, as explained by Greg:
What they actually are, are characters who during a 24hr period have seen a significant amount of voting activity compared to the previous day. So do not confuse them for simply the top three.
So for example if Gedatsu had 0 votes yesterday, but then 100 votes the next day, the % increase can put him into the top 3, something along those lines.