Dropdown append behaves erratic in IE8 :: Jquery Bug of DOM Manipulation (for IE8)?

Dropdown append behaves erratic in IE8 :: Jquery Bug of DOM Manipulation (for IE8)?

The jQuery preferred code below fails in IE8 but works in all other browsers. When I say fail, what is happening is it seems to be populating the dropdown but there so many blank empty rows.

                                 for (var i in objProspectiveBrides) {
                                      var optElement = new Option(objProspectiveBrides[i].BrideName, objProspectiveBrides[i].BrideId);
                                      if (objProspectiveBrides[i].IsPremiumMember) {
                                          brideObject = objProspectiveBrides[i];
                                          $(optElement).css("selected", "selected");
                                      }

                                      $("#<%=drpMatchingBrides.ClientID %>").append(optElement);
                                  }

Hence I have to make the following workaround for the same:

 //IE 8 does not understand the up-level mode to fill the dropdowns. Using classic DOM instead (LD)
                 var intSelectedIndex = -1;

                 for (var intElement = 0; intElement < objProspectiveBrides.length; intElement++) {
                     var dropDownOption = new Option(objProspectiveBrides[intElement].BrideName, objProspectiveBrides[intElement].BrideId)
                     document.getElementById("<%=drpMatchingBrides.ClientID %>").add(dropDownOption);

                     if (objProspectiveBrides[intElement].IsPremiumMember) {
                         intSelectedIndex = intElement;
                     }
                 }

                 document.getElementById("<%=drpMatchingBrides.ClientID %>").selectedIndex = intSelectedIndex;