Evolution of an extremely important electoral index – the election commissions’ distribution on turnout – in all-Russian federal elections during 1996 2012 is analyzed. This index is generally defined by social factors and, in natural conditions, should be close to Gaussian distribution. Such distribution is shown by the elections of in the 1990s; however, the 2000s were marked by a drastic change which can be explained by administrative influence on the election results. The presidential elections of 1996 2012 are also analyzed with application of Sobyanin-Suchovolskiy method.