Former federal prosecutor Mimi Rocah is facing off against incumbent Anthony Scarpino in the Democratic primary for Westchester County district attorney. 

The primary is set to take place Tuesday, but voters have already been able to cast their decision through early voting. 

Rocah, a distinguished fellow in criminal justice at Pace University's law school, spent more than 16 years as a federal prosecutor and is a former assistant U.S. attorney in the Southern District of New York. She was also chief of the Westchester Division at the Department of Justice. 

She is challenging Scarpino, a former FBI special agent and a former judge who has headed the district attorney's office since his election in 2016.

Nationwide, local prosecutorial elections have shaped up as battlegrounds over criminal justice reforms. Local district attorneys hold power over a number of levers in the criminal justice system, from how to handle low-level crimes to prosecuting police misconduct.

In recent weeks, following the death of George Floyd in Minnesota, there have been waves of demonstrations protesting police brutality and the killing of Black Americans by law enforcement. Some protests have focused on local prosecutors.

In Westchester County, the Democratic primary district attorney race has been punctuated recently with criticism that Scarpino did not do enough to investigate police misconduct.

A spokesperson for the Scarpino campaign said the suggestion that the district attorney does not prosecute members of law enforcement is not borne out by the facts.

At a virtual debate last month hosted by the League of Women Voters of Westchester, Rocah argued that the county is behind when it comes to ending racial bias in criminal justice and making sure innocent people are not convicted. 

Rocah's campaign has put forth a transparency plan that includes releasing a list of people in law enforcement who are not permitted to be utilized as witnesses because they have compromised their integrity. The release of that list would happen on regular intervals, according to the plan.

"I'm not a career politician and I'm certainly not part of some status quo, old-boys network. I'm a proud career prosecutor," she said during the debate.

At the same debate, Scarpino argued he has "unsurpassed" experience for the post and said violent crimes have fallen substantially since he took office in 2017. He said murders, robberies and home invasions have all dropped.

"We did this by focusing our efforts on the violent criminal leaders in our [communities] and taking them off the street," he said. 

Both Rocah and Scarpino have expressed support for bail reform. 

Last year, state legislators passed a landmark bail reform law that did away with cash bail for most low-level and nonviolent felony cases. Earlier this year, a few months after the original reforms went into effect, the Legislature trimmed back the bail law and added a series of crimes to the list of offenses in which bail could be set.

"It was simply inhumane, unethical, immoral to have people incarcerated in jail because they could not afford to pay bail," Rocah said at the debate. 

Scarpino reported he decided that his assistant district attorneys would not push for bail in any case where they would not be seeking jail time. He described himself as a supporter of bail reform, but noted he did have reservations that the original bail law did not deem enough crimes as bail-eligible.

Some high-profile figures have thrown their support around Rocah, including Gloria Steinem, former U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District New York. She is also backed by the New York Working Families Party, according to her campaign website.

For his part, Scarpino has been endorsed by a number of elected officials, including state Sen. Peter Harckham, Assemblymember Amy Paulin and state Sen. Shelley Mayer. He is also backed by the mayors of New Rochelle, White Plains, Yonkers and Peekskill, according to his campaign website.