Edited Issue: Using SPFilterDropdown adds (None) option to a required field [10068]

I was trying to use the technique described a post on Marc's blog in which the SPFilterDropdown function is used to reorder the options in a dropdown list into a more logical sequence than alphabetical order would generate. The technique worked, however it had the side effect of introducing the (None) option into the list, which shouldn't be an option because it's a required field.

The environment is WSS 3.0, jQuery 1.7.1, SPServices 0.7.1a.

http://sympmarc.com/2012/05/11/using-spfilterdropdown-to-reorder-options-in-a-dropdown-on-a-sharepoint-form/