How to get instance of Module / Plugin / Widget of Vote Object in THEME_preprocess_node?
Turns out, everything I need is in $variables['content'] as long as the widgets/plugins that I'm trying to display are set to display as part of the view mode.
So in my specific case I can for example access $variables['content']['field_upvotes']['#up_points'] and that contains the number of upvotes!
Easy enough! :-)