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In this season finale, the detectives are called upon to investigate the death of Martha Krasner, who was shot and got into a fatal car accident as she was leaving a parking garage in her blue Volvo. A witness states that a gray SUV and a green car appeared to both be waiting for Martha's parking space. In tracing Martha's activities for that day, the detectives learn that she was making an unplanned visit to a friend that worked in the office building that owns the garage.

Security tapes from the garage show another blue Volvo, very similar to the one Martha was driving, being driven out of the garage by a woman who looks somewhat like Martha. The tape shows Martha leaving the garage two minutes later.

Upon further investigation, the detectives conclude that the owner of the first Volvo was the intended victim of the killing, and trace the license plate to an investigative reporter named Kate Pierce. The theory that Kate is the intended victim is strengthened when Kate states that she comes to the building every day for a workout in the gym. When asked what stories she was working on, Kate only provides public records clippings; she adamantly refuses to provide sources, even though she has just been informed that her life is in danger. Since one of Kate's recent news stories reported on mob infiltration into a public housing contract, the detectives initially focus on this angle.

The green car spotted from the murder scene is then found, when the driver is stopped for a traffic violation. The driver is a teenager who claims to have obtained the car from a local junkyard. When Briscoe and Green visit the junkyard, the owner states that the car had been brought in to be destroyed. Fingerprints on the money given to the junkyard are traced to a gangster named Martin Blatt. At first, Blatt is quite uncooperative; he tells the detectives that Elvis hired him for the killing. However, his tune changes pretty quickly when Lt. Van Buren announces that a search of his apartment turned up the same type of hollow point bullets used to kill Martha; he then admits he was hired by Al Bonatello, another gangster, to kill Kate due to an election expose she was writing.

In a "déjà vu" of last November's presidential election confusion, an official from the state Board of Elections tells Abbie Carmichael that State Senator Anne Benton won her seat by less than 200 votes, and that there were irregularities found with the absentee ballots. Kate had discovered that election officials were adding registration numbers to overseas ballots and that 12 old voting machines in a precinct voting against Benton had failed. Due to the machine failure, people had to vote on emergency paper ballots. Jack McCoy files a motion for a court order requiring Kate to divulge her source on this, but the judge properly denies this motion.

In comparing the official results of the Board of Elections with the sign in sheets of the precinct in question, Jack notices that there are 1800 ballots unaccounted for in the official tally. Al Bonatello, the gangster who hired Blatt, is finally arrested, and he strikes a plea with Jack in exchange for the 4 boxes of missing ballots.

When charged with murder, Benton scoffs, claiming she had no motive because, according to her, she was winning the precinct at issue. To rebut this claim, Jack McCoy requests a court order for the Board of Elections to count the newly discovered ballots, which is granted by the judge. The counting begins, and much like in Florida, there is considerable disagreement over the intent of the voter and whether or not votes had already been counted. However, Jack is served with an injunction stopping the count. This isn't quite accurate; the injunction should have been served on the Board, as they were the ones counting the ballots.

When the injunction is appealed to the New York Appellate Division, the parties argue out of order. Jack is portrayed as presenting his argument after Benton's attorney when, as the party appealing, Jack should present his argument first to show why the lower court should be reversed. The questions asked of Benton's attorney make it clear that the majority is concerned more with Benton's election than on the murder case. In closing, Jack states that "protecting a politician is a betrayal of the most basic principle of law." While this is not a very good legal argument on the merits of Jack's case, it is an excellent response to the real Supreme Court's decision in our own presidential elections when, split by party lines, it upheld the injunction against the ballot count.

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In a last ditch effort to preserve the case against Benton, Jack again appeals to Kate to reveal her source, and she acquiesces this time. The source turns out to be Benton's Chief of Staff, who testifies at trial that he knows both Al Bonatello and Anne Benton. Presumably the jury would return with a guilty verdict under these circumstances.

As this season ends, so does another cast member's time on this show. Abbie informs Jack that she has accepted a job offer with the US Attorney's Office.

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