[jonbarker]

The risk is that Vanguard, State Street, and Blackrock, employ small 'governance teams' whose job is to vote on your behalf. Since they don't have an explicit fiduciary duty to the shareholders of the index funds, but do have an implicit one, it can be argued that you don't actually have a vote in how the component companies are run. More here: https://outline.com/njXPEu

[jschwartzi]

Vanguard explicitly asks you to vote your shares. I've gotten letters in the past asking me to cast a vote.

[travisp]

Vote on mutual fund governance questions. Not on each of the thousands of companies that the fund is invested in.

[jonknee]

You do not get 3,641 letters asking you to vote in each of the companies that make up VTI. If you own shares of a company directly you will get a letter and you may get a letter about governance of the fund you own, but not for the individual names in it (you own a piece of something that owns the actual shares).