You need to understand that in late 80s (late Soviet Union) there were elections with just 1 candidate in ballot. Nevertheless people needed to report that they were on those elections.

Now the story is the same. All government and semi-government workers (50% of worker-age population in country) were mobilized. In schools, from high to nursery, teachers push students and their parents to take the ballot. Of course all the mass media possible worked for that too. In every store, gas stations, bank ATMs there were election promos. All mobile phones received 2 to 5 "come to election" SMS .
Insane. Completely insane.

So, ballot machinations were not the core of the problem. The problem is there were no alternative in the ballots and no means for many people not to come to Putin re-elections.