The 2012 general election has its first dispute.Students who still face exams on or after December 17 will be unable to vote and they are not happy about this.This issue has its roots in the 1998 general election, which then-Premier Pamela Gordon called for November 9.The Progressive Labour Party, with both moral and tactical force, made a good deal of hay about the fact that students then were unable to vote.Since then, the PLP has held elections as close to school holidays as possible. Jennifer Smith held the 2003 general election in late July, Premier Dr Ewart Brown held the 2007 election on Tuesday, December 18 and now Premier Paula Cox has called the 2012 election for Monday, December 17.The PLP has done this knowing very well that although the Westminster system allows the Premier to call elections at any time during the five-year term, it would be criticised heavily if it held an election in, say, November or February when students were bound to be away.There used to be some criticism when the United Bermuda Party held elections outside of holidays, but it was more muted because the voting age was 21 for much of the time it was in power, so the level of disenfranchisement was much lower.It’s no accident either that the PLP believes it has done well out of the student vote; although there are signs that may be changing.The foolish part of this is that it has been under debate ever since 1998 and is easily fixed.Dame Jennifer Smith had a study done on it. Former Premier Alex Scott got as far as drafting a bill before he was forced out of office.After that, former UBP MP and John Barritt, later the One Bermuda Alliance Leader, moved a motion in the House of Assembly to get absentee voting adopted.But Dr Brown killed that initiative, changing it to a take note motion and then letting it drop.That’s too bad, because there are Bermudians studying, working and temporarily living abroad who should be able to vote.To be sure, online voting is not entirely proven. And it can be argued that the five weeks or so required as the minimum length for an election might not be long enough to mail out and get back absentee ballots, especially based on the spotty performance of the General Post Office.Proper verification and voter fraud measures would also have to be taken.Assuming the latter issues are resolved, there is a simple answer to this. Fixed term elections, as proposed by the UBP when Wayne Furbert, now a PLP Minister, was leader, and still backed by the OBA, would solve the problem, because absentee voters would know precisely when the election was.By the same token, advance polling for people travelling on election day could also be done well in advance.At the moment, people who plan to leave Bermuda just a week before polling day are disenfranchised as they miss the advance polls. Since elections are held in holiday periods, this is a real issue too.As the US has also shown recently, early voting also seems to encourage higher levels of voter participation. And that’s a good thing.Whichever party wins on December 17 should make it a priority to introduce fixed term elections and absentee ballots. It is long overdue.