AJAX (jQuery) bug?

I am trying to make an AJAX post with jQuery, and for some reason one form field is not going through.

I have a simple form where the user can post a note and check a box. If I set the form to do a normal submit (i.e. load a new page), everything works fine. If I change it to an AJAX submit, where the page doesn't reload, I get an error that says "APPLICANTID is undefined in FORM."

<form action="inc/moderation-ajax.cfm" class="moderation" id="m#extendedFetch.id#" method="post">
  <div>
    Leave <label for="note">a note for this applicant</label>:
  </div>
  <textarea id="note" name="note" title="Special Note">Hello world!</textarea>
  <div>
    <input type="checkbox" id="approve" name="approve" title="Approve This Application" value="1" checked="checked" />
    <label for="approve">Approve this application.</label>
  </div>
  <input type="hidden" id="applicantID" name="applicantID" value="#extendedFetch.id#" />
  <button type="button" class="moderate-button" value="Submit" title="Submit">Submit</button>
</form>

When you click the button, it does a jQuery AJAX call, and the ColdFusion submit code looks like this:

<cfquery name="extendedFetch" datasource="#application.dsn#">
    UPDATE My_Application
    SET note = <cfqueryparam CFSQLtype="CF_SQL_LONGVARCHAR" value="#form.note#">,
        moderation = <cfqueryparam CFSQLtype="CF_SQL_INT" value="#form.approve#">
    WHERE ID = #form.applicantID#
</cfquery>

The AJAX errors out and says: "APPLICANTID is undefined in FORM.

What is going wrong here?