gistfile1.html

<!-- CORRECT -->
  <fieldset class="deformMappingFieldset">
  <!-- mapping -->
  <ul>
    <li class="section">
      <div>Please enter your region (i.e. California, Farāh, British Columbia) and country spelled out (i.e. United States, Botswana)</div>
    </li>
    <input name="__start__" value="location:mapping" type="hidden">
      <li class="field" title="" id="item-deformField10">
  <!-- mapping_item -->
  <label class="desc" title="" for="deformField10">Region (optional)
  </label>
    <input name="state" value="" id="deformField10" type="text">
    <script type="text/javascript">
      deform.addCallback(
        'deformField10',
        function (oid) {
            $('#' + oid).autocomplete({source: "/name/subregions"});
            $('#' + oid).autocomplete("option", {"delay": 400, "minLength": 2});
        }
      );
    </script>
  <!-- /mapping_item -->
</li>
      <li class="field" title="" id="item-deformField11">
  <!-- mapping_item -->
  <label class="desc" title="" for="deformField11">Country<span class="req" id="req-deformField11">*</span>
  </label>
    <input name="country" value="" id="deformField11" type="text">
    <script type="text/javascript">
      deform.addCallback(
        'deformField11',
        function (oid) {
            $('#' + oid).autocomplete({source: "/name/countries"});
            $('#' + oid).autocomplete("option", {"delay": 400, "minLength": 2});
        }
      );
    </script>
  <!-- /mapping_item -->
</li>
    <input name="__end__" value="location:mapping" type="hidden">
  </ul>
  <!-- /mapping -->
</fieldset>

<!--
Which causes the form data to look like this on submission.

(u'__start__', u'location:mapping'), 
  (u'state', u''), 
  (u'country', u'lkj'), 
(u'__end__', u'location:mapping'),  

This lets colander turn it into a dict like... 
{"form-data":
 ...,
  {"contact": 
    ...
    {"state": '', "country": 'lkj'}
    ...
    },
  ...
}
-->

<!-- INCORRECT -->

<li class="field contactContainer deformItem" title="Please enter your region (i.e. California, Farāh, British Columbia) and country spelled out (i.e. United States, Botswana)" id="item-deformField9">
  <!-- mapping_item -->
  <fieldset class="deformMappingFieldset">
  <!-- mapping -->
  <ul>
    <li class="section">
      <div>Please enter your region (i.e. California, Farāh, British Columbia) and country spelled out (i.e. United States, Botswana)</div>
    </li>
    <input name="__start__" value="location:mapping" type="hidden">
      <li class="field contactContainer" title="" id="item-deformField10">
  <!-- mapping_item -->
  <label class="desc" title="" for="deformField10">Region (optional)
  </label>
    <input aria-haspopup="true" aria-autocomplete="list" role="textbox" autocomplete="off" class="ui-autocomplete-input" name="state" value="" id="deformField10" type="text">
    <script type="text/javascript">
      deform.addCallback(
        'deformField10',
        function (oid) {
            $('#' + oid).autocomplete({source: "/name/subregions"});
            $('#' + oid).autocomplete("option", {"delay": 400, "minLength": 2});
        }
      );
    </script>
  <!-- /mapping_item -->
</li>
    <input name="__end__" value="location:mapping" type="hidden">
  </ul>
  <!-- /mapping -->
</fieldset>
  <!-- /mapping_item -->
</li>

<!-- NOTE THIS IS NOW OUTSIDE THE MAPPING -->
<li class="field contactContainer" title="" id="item-deformField11">
  <!-- mapping_item -->
  <label class="desc" title="" for="deformField11">Country<span class="req" id="req-deformField11">*</span>
  </label>
    <input aria-haspopup="true" aria-autocomplete="list" role="textbox" autocomplete="off" class="ui-autocomplete-input" name="country" value="" id="deformField11" type="text">
  <!-- /mapping_item -->
</li>


<!-- 
This causes the submitted for data to look like this:

(u'__start__', u'location:mapping'), 
  (u'state', u'foobar'), 
(u'__end__', u'location:mapping'), 
(u'country', u'j'), 

Note that country is now outside the mapping and won't become part of the structure that gets validated so it will always come back as "required"  
    -->