Declined Payout: What Happens To the Steem?

I saw this comment from @timcliff's recent post:

There are no curation rewards for the post, since the final payout will be 0.
Comments still get rewards, assuming the commentor doesn't decline payout on those too (which can only be done via a blockchain comment, not through the steemit.com UI).

What happens to the declined Steem? I can only see a few possibilities:

• It is burned from the supply.
• The payouts are redistributed to other posts.
• The payouts are redistributed to something else.

I'm looking for factual answers with links - not guesses. I like Steem's changes, but I don't like the constant speculation in comments without any citation, so I'm going to contribute to Steem by no longer upvoting comments without citations. I cited a post that declined a payout; cite the source for where those funds go. Ultimately, this will make Steem a better platform as we'll only upvote people who've taken the time to answer.

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Update

Answer from @timcliff:

It remains part of the rewards pool, which gets distributed to all of the other active posts.

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All images courtesy Pixabay. If you support Steem, consider upvoting this post since all rewards I earn go to Steem Power and I am a long term holder of Steem Power. If you agree with this thinking, tag your post #ichoosesteempower.