I frequently see questions on Stackoverflow.com that belong on Superuser or here on Meta. Prior to being moved or migrated, they are frequently down-voted.
I wouldn't have a problem with this if the vote count did reset. But it doesn't. It's kind of annoying when a perfectly decent question lands on the site with downvotes already attached. It is less likely to be viewed, and must overcome its negative score with upvotes just to get back to zero.
I personally wouldn't downvote these questions (pre-migration) to avoid this problem.
I'd say if it's a good question (well written/researched etc) and it's just in the wrong place, that it should not be downvoted.
Just inform the user of their mistake, explain the reasons, and migrate it.
No need to punish new users who just haven't figured out the system yet.
I think a small amount of downvoting is okay. It tells the asker that they've asked the question on the wrong site, something that should have been researched before posting. That, combined hopefully with a comment saying where the question should have been posted, is enough.
Most people are considerate enough to realize what's happened and not downvote further than -1 or -2, but I've seen some questions go really really far negative when it was completely unnecessary. Personally I don't see the point of downvoting because I'll just add a comment to get attention, but I don't have a problem with a couple downvotes either (if the question is that far off-topic, it's almost impossible to not attract a downvote or two).
Votes are currently not reset when questions are migrated, but it was proposed that the votes be reset on migration, which makes a lot of sense to me.
A lot of it depends on one's approach.
punish doing bad -- if this is your primary motivation, then it makes sense to downvote. Increase the pain for doing the wrong thing.
reward doing good -- If the emphasis is on reward, then it probably makes more sense to withhold reward. A close vote is probably enough to signal to the questioner he did the wrong thing.
Which approach is better? I don't know, watch Dr. Phil! Personally, I like SO when it errs a bit more on the "friendly" side. I participate in some Usenet newsgroups where the denizens provide some helpful information, but they sure are jerks about it sometime!
Specifically for questions that need to be moved: I recommend voting to close, along with leaving a comment recommending the questioner to move the question.
