Is there a way to make sure an autocomplete field as an actual match? I have an entity reference field in a content type in D7 set with an autocomplete widget. This is a required field, however if you type in something that doesn't have a match, it will still submit and save anyway.

Is there a way to make sure an actual match is found before allowing it to save?
Per the comments above, this is a bug with Entity Reference Fields and is being engaged per the Issue Queue at: 

https://drupal.org/project/issues/entityreference?text=autocomplete&amp;status=All

Patches for the Simple batch seem to work from this thread:
https://drupal.org/node/1974202

Patches for the Views reference seem to work from this thread:
https://drupal.org/node/1702172