I apologize for the lateness of this posting. I was under the impression that the announcement page (https://www.debian.org/vote/2014/vote_003) would be updated to reflect when the discussion period had commenced.
There has been a bit of talk during this discussion about Debian being a "do-ocracy" and comments made along the lines of "only those who actually do the work get to vote". While it is true that only Debian Developers are permitted to vote, it would be extremely dismissive of all who make contributions to the Debian Project for DDs to consider themselves as the only ones doing work (hopefully it is just part of the overenthusiastic rhetoric that has accompanied this discussion).
The simple fact is that the Debian Project benefits from far more contributions than just those made by the DDs. In addition to the non-voting Maintainers (which number more than the DDs), there are those who provide and run the approximately 400 mirror sites and 200 servers hosting the Project. There are also those who contribute to language translations and documentation, as well as those who provide testing and aid in the handling of bug reports. There are also those who contribute over $20,000 monthly to Debian through SPI. And then there are those who provide support to users by way of responding to requests for assistance in forums and on mailing lists; or "merely" write blog posts about Debian.
I imagine I've missed other contributors, but the point is that for each of the 1084 Debian Developers who are being asked to vote in this GR, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of contributors who are deserving not only of recognition for their contributions, but representation within the Debian governance model; and the Debian Developers collectively serve the role of that representation.
It is not sufficient for DDs to vote based solely on the technical merits of this GR or on what direction they personally would like to be seen taken -- there is an obligation to look beyond that and to acknowledge their role as the legislative body governing the Debian Project. This GR is a political decision and, as much as programmers, engineers, and technically-minded people may be uncomfortable with making such choices, the political ramifications need to be considered. Just as the policy change proposed in this GR might de-motivate DDs from doing the work they've been doing, an unmodified policy is likely to (actually has already) diminish the incentive for others to continue making their contributions.