Dealing with seemingly blank combo boxes.

[Linux for blind general discussion]

Okay, I've partially figured out these abnormal combo boxes.

When I jump to one with the c navigational hotkey, Orca announces
something like "combo box, opens menu".
Focusing the combo box does not read the current selection, whether
focus is achieved by tabbing or using orca+A to switch mode.
Pressing down arrow on the collapsed combo box expands it instead of
advancing to the next option.
Scrolling through the options does not read them.
tabbing off or escaping does not update the selection.
Pressing enter on a selection does not read it, but does change the
active selection.
Tabbing through the combobox after making a selection does not read
the selection.
Jumping to the combo box with c after making a selection does read the
selection.

So, the strategy seems to be:

Jump to the combo box with c.
Switch to focus mode and expand it.
Blindly scroll through the list of options.
Press enter on an option.
Tab off the combobox and switch to browse mode.
Jump to it with c to hear what was selected.
Repeat until the correct selection is selected.

Also, I can confirm the page in question is one of those that will not
even try to load anything and give you an error message if JavaScript
is turned off. Between that, past bad experience with JavaScript, and
how these combo boxes behave almost totally unlike how combo boxes
normally behave, I half expect this might be a case of a JavaScript
elements that's inferior, buggier version of a standard HTML element.

So, does this extra information provide any clues to what I'm dealing
with and how I might more efficiently manipulate these(I don't know
how many times I had to repeat the above trying to select the correct
state for inputting a shipping address, especially since North
Carolina was above Nevada andd other otther Ne states).