State dropdown does not appear on front end

[TurkeyFish]

PS 1.6.1

 

The State dropdown does not appear on the front end, including customer checkout, guest checkout, and adding a new address.

 

I can add a new address in the back end with the state. It appears to only be a front end problem.

 

I changed the "move javascript to the end" to YES in advanced parameters, which caused the state dropdown to appear correctly. But this is just getting around some problem that needs to be solved. I don't want my javascript all loading at the end.

 

I see dozens of threads on here, and the typical "solution" is changing one of those advanced parameters settings. But this isn't a good fix. Something is going on that's disrupting the state dropdown. How can I find out what it is?