OLYMPIA, Wash. — Josh Sutinen isn’t old enough to vote and only got his driver’s license last month, but he’s already among the leaders in a growing national backlash against cameras that issue traffic tickets.

The 17-year-old has worked for most of this year — frequently on school nights — pushing an initiative to ban Longview’s new red-light and speed cameras. He’s now in the final stages of a signature-collection effort that has him fighting the City Council and asking fellow citizens to join his crusade.

“These cameras are really just another big-government attack on our rights,” Sutinen said in an interview. “It’s just taxation through citation.”

Sutinen’s plan is one of four similar ballot proposals around Washington this year. Voters in more than a dozen cities nationwide have passed referendums banning the cameras while nine states now prohibit them.

Officials in Los Angeles, where a single ticket can cost hundreds of dollars, moved this week to end a camera program there. Opponents question whether the cameras actually improve safety, noting that many citations are issued to drivers who simply don’t fully stop as they take free right turns at red lights. They also believe governments are largely using the cameras as a revenue source.

Washington’s activists hope to repeat the local success that state initiative guru Tim Eyman had in his hometown of Mukilteo last year. A group in Bellingham turned in nearly 7,000 signatures this week, and a movement in Redmond is still collecting.

Some city leaders are fighting to save the programs: On Tuesday, Monroe officials moved to block an initiative from the ballot after promoters got enough signatures.

The Longview plan led by Sutinen needs about 2,800 signatures and to win a legal battle against the city. Supporters have turned in 3,628 but believe they will need hundreds more in the coming weeks after officials finish sorting through which ones are valid.

Longview has about a dozen cameras covering three intersections and two school zones. Mayor Kurt Anagnostou said he is sensitive to concerns about the cameras and initially opposed them himself — until he got feedback from the public about red-light runners and intersection accidents. “I heard from enough citizens that we have a problem in Longview,” Anagnostou said. “They changed my opinion.”

The city began a one-year trial of the cameras this year, and Anagnostou said the program has made people more aware at intersections.

Sutinen is certainly aware. He avoids the traffic cameras at all costs, taking detours that extend his three-mile commute to five. Even before he had a driver’s license, Sutinen said he hated the idea of the cameras and sought help from Eyman, who provided the initiative’s wording.