On our escape from Chicago, we ran into some confusing signage and missed paying at a toll booth. What happens now - are we going to get a bill in the mail or something for this approximately $1 toll? Should we be expecting State Troopers to show up at our door with extradition orders some day in the near future? Oh yeah, we’re from Alberta, with an Alberta plate on the car, of course (to go along with our fake Canadian driver’s licenses. 
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Typically if they have any sort of camera equipment, they’ll just track you down and send you a ticket in the mail. Keep an eye out for it 
What kind of ticket are we talking about here? If we go pay it online quickly, can we avoid an expensive ticket?
WAG.
Well, on the one hand, nothing will happen.
But, on the other hand, your license plate was photographed. Once the processing is complete, the system will determine you are a foreigner and no bill, plus fine, will be sent to you. That’s because the statistics show that the actual cost recovery from foreign scallywags far exceeds the actual bill, plus fine.
However, your license details, identification and scoflaw information will be transmitted to ICE. So the next time you enter the USA, you will either be denied entrance (permanently), or allowed to enter the USA unencumbered (Well, for the first one mile, after which you will be stopped by ICE, searched, handcuffed, drugged and flown to Gitmo for additional interrogation.)
Beyond that, I got nothing.
This happened to me in New Hampshire. They sent me a ticket for $25 which I paid online. The picture of my car was on the ticket.
This happened to me and my wife a couple of years ago on a California toll road. My wife forgot to stop at the booth and we just breezed on by without doing the detour to throw in our money. We never got anything in the mail. (I don’t think that this is typical, but that’s what the result of our transgression was.)
Nowadays, with a California FasTrack card in your car, you can associate several license plate numbers with the same FasTrack card. You are supposed to move the FasTrack card to the car that is going on the toll road, but if you forget, they will take a picture, match the license plate number to their database, and put the charge on the FasTrack account for that car.
You have license plates from Alberta. Nobody knows what that is but most people in the U.S. would just assume a feisty old lady has vanity plates. I would assume that nothing will happen.
However, if the CIA, FBI, or Illinois National Guard get involved then all bets are off. With a good lawyer, the penalty could be as little as a lifetime ban from the U.S. If you ever think about the term “illegal alien” then just look in the mirror. That is you.
Damn Canadian troublemakers! You create extra work for State Troopers, lurk suspiciously along streets of Minneapolis (and suburbs!), cause confusion among poor beer-sellers and now this! 
You really have had some adventures! I heard years ago on the radio that an isolated incident of not paying would not be pursued. The context of the report was that if a person got to an automatic toll and didn’t have the money, the road authorities would rather you drove though the toll booth instead of holding up traffic. I don’t know if this attitude still holds true though.
There is an online method of paying tolls found here. I have not checked it too much, but it seems as is they are pretty relaxed about a single missed payment, but would still like you to pay.
My opinion (free and worth the price) is that with out-of-country plates, don’t bother. I can’t imagine them even bothering to send it to a collections agency for a dollar.
I hope the trip back was uneventful.
Featherlou, my advice would be to watch your mail when you get home, and if you get a bill, pay it. Yes, it will be a bit of a PITA since they probably won’t accept a cheque drawn on a Canadian bank, but you can buy a US dollar money order. A little expensive perhaps, but probably worth it in the long run. And if nothing arrives in the mail, don’t sweat it. I cannot imagine that the state of Illinois has enough clout in Washington that it can persuade the US government to declare you persona non grata at the border for failing to pay a one dollar road toll.
I believe there is a number for Chicagoland tolls that you can call to pay up if you missed one.
If your not posting from Guantanamo yet you’ll probably be fine. 
FYI: A bill in the mail might come under a letterhead using a logo from the speed pass company, and not the toll authority, themselves. I was misled by a letter from E-Z pass (used on the east coast) when I was expecting a letter from the toll authority. I thought this was simply a statement of my account, and I put it aside. I think it is wrong they use the logo in this way (as the layman would not see it as a symbol of authority), and I fought the additional late fees.
However, please learn from my mistake…check your mail. And, anything even looking like an innocent statement from any toll-related entity should be opened ASAP!
I tried to pay online, but you can’t use that option if you’re from outside of the United States. Oh well. If we get the ticket in the mail, I’ll just go draw a USD money order like I did for our speeding ticket from Idaho. All this fuss for a $1 toll - we had no intention of not paying, but like I said, between the construction and the confusing signage it just happened.
(Heh - I hadn’t thought about it like that, Mycroft. I think it would have been cool to go inside the Paisley Park gates and get escorted out by Prince’s security guards, but it’s probably for the best that we didn’t. )
There’s also an address for paying missed tolls on the website linked to earlier. You have seven days from the missed toll to send them the buck.
Back in November 2005, I did the same thing – not intentionally, mind you. Nothing ever came of it. I did email the turnpike people, and they gave me some instructions to pay, but I never did that either. Seemed like to much of a burden for a lousy buck (paperwork, envelope, going to buy a stamp, etc.). If they’d make things clearer for visitors, this’d never happen.
On some roads here in DFW they mail you the bill. Someone from DFW will clarify if I’m wrong, but there are parts of 121 where they send everybody a bill—assuming you don’t have the electronic device that they use in billing—because there is no booth. The road signs indicate it’s now a tollway (past a certain exit) and that’s it.
I always wondered how they get money from out-of-staters or better yet, people like the OP from another country.
I missed a toll in New Jersey our last trip down and nothing ever happened, same thing, construction area with confusing signage. I joked with my wife that we would just pay double on the way back. I don’t think you’ll find anything will happen. Conversely, I’ve known Americans who failed to pay tolls or parking tickets while visiting here and nothing happened to them either. It doesn’t seem to be worth the time or expense.
As a police officer I have no way to look up a Canadian plate. I have no idea if agencies closer to the border have a system set up. I have a feeling that they won’t even bother with a Canadian plate.
On 9-11-01 I was heading to my National Guard armory on the Garden State Parkway. I was basically alone on the road and the tollbooth collectors just waved me through when they saw my uniform. I got in the wrong lane for one and went through the easypass lane (didn’t have one at the time). I got a letter a few weeks later with a picture of my car going through the toll. It threatened me with a fine of something like $25. I sent in a check for 25 cents with a note explaining things and I never heard back. No warrants were issued for my arrest so I guess its OK.
Highway 407 in southern Ontario workes the same way, but they do manage to bill out-of-province and certain American cars that use the road. From the Wikipedia entry on Highway 407:
The entry is poorly written and not very clear, but obviously, arrangements can be made with other jurisdictions to provide billing information. Some jurisdictions won’t cooperate, and I have no idea what happens if the billed car in the cooperating provinces/states doesn’t pay up, but it does seem that there are instances when the road authorities in one jurisdiction can make arrangements with other jurisdictions (including those in another country) to get the information necessary for billing.
in featherlou’s case, I’d definitely contact the toll authority and see about sending in the buck. Any ticket will be for a lot more than that, and you’d don’t know what kind of pain in the ass the authorities can create for you, “alien” or not.
If you do make a good faith effort to pay and still get a ticket anyway, you might be able to appeal it due to the bad signage.
A few years ago I was heading to Newark (NJ) airport in a rental car, threw my quarter into the collection bucket at the toll plaza, and was rewarded by a continuous red light (my quarter hadn’t registered). I didn’t have another quarter handy, i was well beyond the collection point, cars were starting to back up behind me, there was no place to pull over and I didn’t want to stop, fish for change and risk Jersey Driver Wrath. So I went on through, and months later got notice that I’d been ticketed, plus a nice credit card surcharge with penalties from Dollar Rent A Car, with the explanation that I could get it refunded if N.J. rescinded the ticket. N.J., bless its heart, did accept my explanation and canceled the ticket. Dollar Rent A Car, on the other hand, fought and bitched for a long time before refunding my money.
So the moral of the story is, sometimes even toll authorities have a heart, and oh yeah, Dollar Rent A Car sucks.