Nope, it’s smart. Leaving sentencing until after the election also keeps the Supreme Court out of it before the election. You can bet your boots they would have fast-tracked any appeal and nullified the sentence somehow before the election.
He can’t pardon them, but he can probably just ignore whatever punishment is given and he’ll say he has presidential immunity (regardless of whether it fits, that’s the idea he’ll have). Then, if he becomes a sitting president, nobody will actually do anything to enforce the judgement against him and it’ll just be ignored, making presidential immunity to even state crimes a practical reality, even if it’s not a legal reality.
If he was sentenced before the election the Supreme Court nullifies it and you have the same result.
Do all that you can to make sure he doesn’t get elected.