[Plugin: Rating-Widget] Inserting star rating manually

I really like your plugin, but I’m having an issue.

1. I’m using excerpts on the home page, and the stars aren’t showing up above each excerpt automatically. I can’t figure out how to manually place the stars within the loop. Is there a way to do this?
2. The widget works fine on each post, but it’s not showing any articles on the home page. I’m thinking this is related to the fact that the stars aren’t working in the excerpts.
If you can offer any help, I would appreciate it.

http://ww.wp.xz.cn/extend/plugins/rating-widget/