The basic formats include short, single-race summaries (which may be packaged with other races of the same type, for example, a state legislature) and in some cases, longer county-by-county tables for statewide or district races, such as congressional districts that include more than one county.

AP state election systems are used to cover special elections that might include a single race (for example, a statewide lottery referendum), as well as regular primary, runoff and general elections that usually occur every two years. The AP national election system is used as a general statement in even-numbered years, to provide results on races for both houses of Congress and governor in non-presidential years, and for those offices as well as president in presidential years. In the latter case, the national wire provides results of presidential primary elections in the spring and early summer.

Because space is severely limited on news wires on an election night, the AP offers special, results-only state (and, where applicable, national) election wires which transmit results much more frequently than is possible on the news wires. For instance, a statewide summary on a closely watched governor's race might be transmitted every 15 minutes on the news wires, and every 5 minutes on the special election wire.

These reports are designed to be easily sorted, categorized and displayed by newsroom systems, and are ready for broadcast or customization to preferred formats. The AP's own formats are standard from year to year on all wires.

Each tabulated report includes several identifying elements, including the state postal code, an abbreviation (for example, Pres) for the specific race, a party abbreviation (generally "Dem" or "GOP") and a format indictor ("Sum" for summary, "Cnty" for county table).

Summaries and tables are updated as results are available, at the county level in most elections. In a common case, the AP assigns a stringer to every location in the state where the votes are tabulated, and the cumulative vote totals are updated frequently.

Each state AP bureau designs its own election-night transmission schedule, based on the news value of specific races. Clearly, a closely watched race will merit more frequent transmissions than a blowout. Coverage in all states extends through the legislature, and in many state includes county or district offices.

A regimen of transmission testing precedes every election night. The normal rule is to test on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons preceding an election night. In the case of a national General Election, coordinated testing normally begins on the first Tuesday in October and continues on the Tuesday-Thursday routine through week preceding the election. At least one dress rehearsal involving all state and national election wires is held, most often on the Saturday preceding election day.

In election tests, mock results are entered into the system so that users can test their own character-generation systems.