If you remove the phrase you have to add back in your own code to show something... The phrase is the default message, without it there is nothing to show.
For example, if you replaced the phrase with:
Code:
$post[goodrank] Good Votes!
The post would show "6 Good Votes!" if there were 6 good votes for it.
If there are no votes nothing would show by default, but again, you can change that by removing the <if ...> condition right above the phrase you are changing.