jQuery closest problem with classes

Here is my jQuery

$('.vote_down').live('click', function() {
    var $votes = $(this);
    var c_id = $(this).closest('.c_id').val();
    var c_vote = $(this).closest('.c_vote').val();
    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: "votes.php",
        data: "c_id="+c_id+"&c_vote="+c_vote,
        success: function(html){
            开发者_如何学运维$votes.parent().html(html);             
        }
    });
});

And here is the html it's pulling from:

The vars c_id and c_vote currently get nothing

<div class="votes">
    <input type="hidden" class="c_id" value="5" />
    <input type="hidden" class="c_vote" value="2" />
    <img src="down_vote.png" border="0" class="vote_down" alt="Down Vote" />
</div>

You are using the wrong function. closest gets the closest ancestor. The input fields are not ancestors of the image, they are siblings.

You can do:

var c_id = $(this).prevAll('.c_id').val();
var c_vote = $(this).prevAll('.c_vote').val();

or if the order is always the same:

var c_id = $(this).prev().prev().val();
var c_vote = $(this).prev().val();

Reference: prevAll, prev

$('.vote_down').live('click', function() {
    var $votes = $(this);
    var c_id = $(this).prev('input.c_id:first').val();
    var c_vote = $(this).prev('input.c_vote:first').val();
    $.ajax({
        type: "POST",
        url: "votes.php",
        data: "c_id="+c_id+"&c_vote="+c_vote,
        success: function(html){
            $votes.parent().html(html);             
        }
    });
});

-edited after your comment, true my bet, I ment prev()- If you always use this HTML structure, why not use prev(); ? Try the above code