[jQuery] Textarea Question

[kwikgoal]

I was trying to check a textarea to make sure it has a valid number of
characters.  The code below selects the textarea by ID.  This works
for Firefox, but not for IE.  Is there something I am doing
incorrectly here?

if ($("textarea#reason").val().length < 1 || $
("textarea#reason").val().length > 500) {
...display fail message...
}

Thanks,

~K