"The button" Implementation

Reddit has launched a popular button ( http://ift.tt/1F2L3P2 ). It's a countdown that restarts at 1 min after someone has pressed the button.

The social part aside, how does this work technically?. Looking at the page with the network tab of chrome developer console I can't find any communication happen between my computer and reddit and still the button gets reset.

Since there's a network delay, how do you handle two racing users pressing the button at the same time?

Network lantence can be measured in seconds, so how can the feedback seem so direct without beeing incorrect?