I didn't find any bugs matching this.

Immediately after populating my drop down via

for (var i = 0; i < options.length; i++) {
   $("#" + mStateDDToUpdate).append("<option value='" + options[i].Key.trim() + "' >" + options[i].Value.trim() + "</option>");                
}

I select the desired option from the list

try {
   if (typeof StateToSelect != 'undefined' && StateToSelect != null) {
       $("#" + mStateDDToUpdate).val(StateToSelect);
   }
} catch (ex) {
   alert("Error setting the list.\\r\\n" + ex.message);
}

The ex.message that was caught was "Could not set the selected property. Unspecified error."

The selector does find the object, and the value is in the options.

It seems to be a timing thing, because if I add an alert before setting the selected option then there is no exception.

I only got this exception when I tested in IE 6.0.3790.3959, not in IE 8.0.6001.18702 or Chrome 13.0.782.112.

I did my best to recreate the whole thing in jsFiddle here: http://jsfiddle.net/r3g9g/ however, as I mentioned I only see the bug in IE6. Also, I know I don't have all the US states in the list that is not an error.